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V 





































FAIRY STORIES 

MY CHILDREN LOVE 
BEST OF ALL 
BY EDGAR DUBS SHIMER 



ILLUSTRATED FROM 
ORIGINAL DRAWINGS 
BY LUCY FITCH PERKINS 


NEW YORK 
LLOYD ADAMS NOBLE 
19 2 0 



Copyright, 1920 

BY 

LLOYD ADAMS NOBLE 


■ , • 


JAN 10 1320 



©CI.A559386 


£M4-6 nW hso 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

The Bears Make a Visit 5 

The Fox and the Crab I4 

The Miller’s Daughter jy 

Gentle Olga and Spiteful Vera . . . .27 

The Crane, the Fish, and the Lobster . . .36 

Mary’s Baby Brother 41 

The Hungry Chicks . 48 

Wang and His Star 49 

The Origin of the Robin 55 

The Sister Without a Name 61 

The Scarlet Blanket 67 

Peach-Prince and the Demons . . . .73 

The Fairy Huntsmen . . . . . .81 

A Fairy Song 87 

Drakesbill and His Friends . 89 

A King Finds a Beautiful Hair . , . .102 

Cinder-lad and His Six Brothers . . . .110 

s The Emperor’s Invisible Robe 117 

Ten at One Stroke 127 

The Smart Young Tiger 136 

Carlos and the Magic Horse 147 

The Tinder Box 161 


3 


PAGE 


How Cassim Became King 175 

The Flying Trunk 191 

The Snow Man 203 

Five Wonderful Eggs 213 

The Bluebird 229 

The Throstle 230 

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs . . .231 

Clever Chang 245 

Horses With Wings 260 

A Miracle 268 

How Ariadne Helped Theseus . . . .270 


4 


THE BEARS MAKE A VISIT. 


“I don’t think it was quite fair for Silverhair 
to eat up the little bear’s supper and break down 
his chair. Do you?” exclaimed Teddy Ranger. 

“Well, I do think it was pretty hard on the 
little bear, Teddy,” said the teacher, “and I 
should n’t wonder a bit if he got even with her 
afterward. In fact, I believe there is another 
part to this story, only it is n’t in the book.” 

“Do you know it? Do you know^it?” ex- 
claimed half a dozen voices. 

“ I believe I do know a little of it,” she said. 

By this time, every child in the room was on 
the alert, and several had crowded round her. 

5 


“You see, the little bear felt very unhappy 
that night. He had no supper, for, as you 
know, Silverhair had eaten his all up. Of course 
the great bear and the middle-sized bear offered 
him some of their porridge, but he did n’t like it 
any better than Silverhair did, so he had to 
make out as best he could with a crust of bread. 
Then, too, he had nothing to sit down on, for 
Silverhair had broken the bottom out of his 
chair. So he had to stand on his hind legs all 
the time he was eating, and that, of course, 
was n’t very pleasant. 

All at once, he broke out with a queer little 
growl, ‘ I say, let us watch our chance to get 
into Silverhair’s house when she is away, and 
let us eat her supper and break down her chair, 
and see how she will like it.’ 

The great bear patted him on the head with 
his huge brown paw, and said, ‘This is a bright 
little cub of ours.’ And the middle-sized bear 
added, ‘He will be a great bear some day.’ 

Then they put their heads together and de- 
cided that the very next morning they would 
hunt for Silverhair’s house, and get in, if they 
6 



/ 



could, and pay her back for all the mischief she 
had done. 

The little bear dreamed about it all night, 
sleeping in the bed where Silverhair had taken 
her nap, and as soon as they had eaten their 
breakfast the next morning, off they went. 

It was afternoon before they found the house, 
a little brown cottage on the edge of the woods ; 
but they knew it was the right one, for there 
was Silverhair herself, climbing a tree to peep 
into a woodpecker’s nest. The door was open, 
and they could have rushed in as well as not, 
but they saw Silverhair’s mother sitting by the 
window, and they were afraid they might disturb 
her; so they crept back into the bushes and 
waited, in hopes that she would go away. 

And, sure enough, just as the sun was going 
down, and the bears were getting hungry, Sil- 
verhair’s mother came out of the house with her 
bonnet on. 

‘Come, Silverhair,’ she said. ‘It is almost 
time for supper. Let us go and call your father 
home.’ 

Then she shut the door behind her and the 

8 


two walked off together ; but they never thought 
to put the windows down, and one of them was 
left wide open. 

‘Now is our chance!’ cried the three bears, 
and they scrambled out of the bushes and ran to 
the house as fast as ever they could. 

‘ I am half starved,’ cried the great bear, as 
he climbed in at the window. ‘ I hope they 
have something nice for supper. A good fat 
sheep or a fine large deer would suit me.’ 

‘Or a couple of tender young calves,’ said 
the middle-sized bear. ‘We won’t leave a bone 
for Silverhair.’ 

‘ Here is the supper all ready now,’ cried the 
little bear, and he pushed a door open into a 
room where there was a table set for three. It 
was not at all the kind of a supper they 
wanted, and the faces of the old bears fell ; but 
there was a dish of custard on the table that 
looked a little like porridge, and they thought 
they could eat that at least. The great bear 
and the middle-sized bear stuck their noses in 
together, but they pulled them out again the 
next minute. 


9 


‘It is too sweet,’ said the great bear, with a 
discontented grunt. 

‘It is too sour,’ said the middle-sized bear, 
with another grunt. 

‘It is just right!’ cried the little bear, and 
he ate it all up in a minute. 

Then they noticed a plate of buns, and 
decided to try how these would taste; but the 
great bear threw his on the floor after taking a 
single bite. 

‘They are worse seasoned than the porridge,’ 
he growled; and the middle-sized bear added, 

‘ They are not well baked either. The crust does 
n’t go halfway through.’ 

‘They are just right!’ said the little bear 
again, and he ate every one without stopping. 

‘Let us get out of this place,’ growled the 
two old bears; ‘there is nothing here that we 
want.’ 

‘We must find Silverhair’s chair first,’ said 
the little bear; and he led the way into another 
room, which was the strangest place they had 
ever seen. The floor felt like moss under their 
feet, and there were chairs of all sorts — straight 


io 



chairs and rocking-chairs, stuffed chairs and wil- 
low chairs. 


The great bear sat down in the biggest chair 
of all, but he jumped up again with a very wry face. 
* That is a dreadful chair,’ he growled. ‘ It makes 
me sick to go swinging back and forth like that.’ 

The middle-sized bear sat down in a stuffed 
sleepy-hollow, but she too jumped up again in 
a hurry. ‘ Dear me ! ’ she howled, ‘ I thought I 
was going clear through/ 

1 1 


The little bear climbed into a beautiful red 
high-chair, and it suited him exactly. ‘ It is the 
best chair of all,’ he said, leaning back. ‘ I guess 
I will take it to pay for the one Silverhair broke.’ 

At that very instant, what should they hear 
but a sound of steps coming into the house, and 
in another moment there was a clamor of voices 
from the room where the table was set ‘ Some- 
body has been here and eaten up our supper!’ 
they all cried together. 

Then a great voice roared, 4 Thieves ! 
Thieves ! ’ and a middle-sized voice screamed, 
‘Tramps! Tramps!’ and a wee, small voice 
cried, ‘ The bears ! The bears ! ’ The last was 
the voice of Silverhair herself, and there she stood 
in the doorway, looking right straight at them. 

The bears did not wait to hear any more, but 
jumped out of the window and made off as fast 
as they could. The little bear was last, climbing 
out with Silverhair’s chair in his arms, but when 
he heard the great voice say something about a 
gun, he dropped the chair and got down on all 
fours. As it dropped, he was sure he heard 
something break, but he had no time to stop and 


12 


look. He ran for dear life, and none of the three 
stopped till they were all safe in their den.” 

The children drew a long breath. Teddy 
Ranger found his voice first. “Well,” he said, 
“ I guess the bears did n’t go back to that house 
again very soon ! ” 

“And I guess Silverhair did n’t want to go to 
their house either ! ” said a sweet little girl who 
was leaning on the teacher’s lap. 

“No,” laughed the story-teller. “I guess they 
all thought it would be better to stay in their own 
places, and not meddle with other people’s things.” 



13 



THE FOX AND THE CRAB 

A young crab once crept out of his pond to 
make a little trip and see what was doing in the 
world. A fox passing at the moment noticed the 
crab creeping slowly along. He wished him 
good morning, and then in a mocking tone said, 
“Where are you going so slowly? It seems to 
me that you go backward instead of forward/’ 
Now, this was a clever young crab who had 
heard how sly foxes are. He thought there could 
be no harm in playing this fox a trick. So he 
answered politely, “ I am only a crab, it is true, 
and I cannot walk so well as you, Mr. Fox, but 
I can run much faster.” 

H 


“ Indeed ! ” sneered Mr. Fox. “ You can ! Can 
you?” 

“Well,” said the crab, “as you appear to be in 
doubt, suppose we run a race.” 

“ Nothing would please me better,” answered 
Mr. Fox. 

“ Let us try half a mile,” said the crab, “ or, say, 
a mile ; that will not be too much for either of 
us.” 

“A mile!” cried the fox, as if he thought, 
“ What is a mile to me? I can run that while the 
crab is getting ready to set off.” 

“I will offer you one advantage,” added the 
crab, “which you must accept if I am to race 
with you.” 

“Well, let me hear what it is,” said the fox, 
who was beginning to get impatient. 

“Place yourself so that your hind feet touch 
my nose, and when I cry, ‘ Away ! ’ you must 
set off.” 

This plan seemed to please Mr. Fox, and he 
answered, “ I will do exactly as you wish.” 

He turned himself round and placed his bushy 
tail within reach of the crab. Then the crab 
15 


seized the long hair tightly with his claws, and 
shouted at the same moment, “Away!” 

Off started Mr. Fox as if the dogs were after 
him. His feet scarcely touched the ground. As 
soon as he reached the mile stone, he turned 
round and cried, “Where are you, Mr. Crab?” 

Now, as the fox turned round, his tail touched 
the mile stone, and the crab, quickly letting go his 
hold, answered, “Here I am, waiting for you. I 
was just wondering when you were coming; you 
certainly took time enough to run a mile.” 

Now, Mr. Fox had no idea that he had 
brought the crab all the way clinging to his 
brush. He looked much astonished at seeing 
him there, not the least heated nor tired. 

“My goodness!” he exclaimed. “I did n’t 
know you could run so fast.” 

Then he slunk home to his den, and never 
laughed at a crab again. 




THE MILLER’S DAUGHTER. 

Once upon a time, a miller had a daughter 
who was the only one of his family left to him 
after his wife and son had died. He did not 
care much for anything except his mill. His 
daughter was left all to herself, and often she 
was very unhappy. 

She used to sit by the mill-stream and watch 
the flowing water. Here she would dream with 
her eyes open till it was time to call her grey- 
hound and go home. 

One day, as she was looking into the water, 
she thought she saw dear little babies walking 
17 


about and quietly playing in the water. When 
it began to grow dark, the babies all stopped 
playing, said their prayers, and went to bed. 

One day, she called her greyhound and told him 
to look into the water. She wondered if he would 
see anything strange. The dog jumped about 
and barked as if frightened at what he saw. 

That evening, the millers daughter sat in front 
of the wood fire, with her arm around the grey- 
hound’s neck, dreaming and looking at the 
dancing flames till her eyes grew tired. Some- 
how, she seemed to hear the fire sing and talk. 

“Dear old fire,” asked she, “have you ever 
heard of the babies in the mill-stream?” 

“Yes!” answered the fire. “Walk straight 
in, take the first turn on the right, the second on 
the left, and there you are. Good night.” And 
then the fire went out. 

The next day, the miller’s daughter went down 
to the mill-stream to find out. When she came 
to the stream, she did exactly what the fire had 
told her to do — she walked straight in. 

Then she looked for the first turn on the 
right, and saw a passage that ran under the 
i8 



»9 





water, but it was closed with a gate. As soon, 
however, as she stood in front of the gate, it 
opened cf itself. She entered, and saw a long 
passage, all covered at the top, and on the 
bottom, and on the sides, with beautiful green 
moss. She went on for a long distance, all the 
while looking for the second turn on the left. 

At last, she came to another gate. She 
peeped through this gate, and saw beautiful 
green fields, with roads and cross-roads lined 
with trees. 

But she went on, because the fire had said the 
second on the left. Soon she came to another 
gate. As she peeped through, she saw nothing 
but bare ground. Everything looked so ugly 
that she was going to turn away, but she re- 
membered what the fire had said. So she 
opened the gate, and — there she was. 

What a surprise ! She saw dear little babies 
everywhere. The place did not look bare and 
ugly at all. It was as beautiful as a dream. 

Soon she saw a lovely lady dressed in white, 
taking care of all the babies. 

‘‘Who are you?” asked the miller’s daughter. 


20 



21 




“ I am the Lady Bertha,” said the lady in 
white; “and these are my children, my elves.” 

“I saw them playing in the mill-stream,” said 
the miller’s daughter. “The fire told me how 
to get here.” 

“Yes! Th.ey were playing because it was a 
holiday,” said Lady Bertha. “To-morrow they 
will have to work.” 

“Work! Work!” cried out the miller’s daugh- 
ter. “ Surely these babies cannot work ! ” 

“Yes, indeed, they can,” said Lady Bertha. 
“They carry water for me in their little 
pitchers, and so they help me to till the ground.” 

All of a sudden, there was music in the air, 
and the babies stopped playing. 

Lady Bertha ran about and chased the happy 
little creatures to bed, crying out, “Bedtime! 
Bedtime!” It looked so funny to the miller’s 
daughter that she had to laugh till tears came 
to her eyes. 

Then Lady Bertha led her through the fields 
to a huge cave lighted up with wonderful fire- 
flies that shone like stars. The cave was so 
bright with shining gold, silver, and diamonds 


22 



that the miller’s daughter at first could not see. 
Soon they came to a great iron trough, before 
which lay a great number of old men and old 
women, as if they were asleep. 

“What are these old folks doing here?” 
asked the miller’s daughter. 

“They are % waiting for me to grind them 
young again,” answered the Lady Bertha. 

Then they came to a great oak trough, before 
which lay a great many youths and maidens, as 
23 


if they were asleep. Just as the miller’s daugh- 
ter was going to ask why they were here, she 
saw another great oak trough full of little babies 
fast asleep under a great glass case. 

“Here they are,” she said, clapping her hands 
with joy. “ How sweet and pretty they look !’’ 

“Yes,” said Lady Bertha, “they are sweet, 
and they are pretty, too.” 

“How did they all come here?” asked the 
miller’s daughter. 

“They are the children,” said Lady Bertha, 
“who died right after they were born.” 

“How beautiful!” exclaimed the miller’s 
daughter. “Then my little brother, who died 
the day after he was born, must be here.” 

“Yes, he is here. You will see him to-mor- 
row,” said Lady Bertha. 

The next morning, the miller’s daughter was 
awakened by the sound of little feet. She 
opened her eyes, and found herself beside a half- 
plowed field. The Lady Bertha was plow- 
ing, and hundreds of little babies came up to 
her to help her soften the earth with the water 
in their little pitchers. 


24 


They all wore little white shirts which did not 
quite reach down to their knees. The miller s 
daughter sat and watched the jolly elves for a 
long time. Suddenly, one of them, with a longer 
shirt than the others, tripped over it and fell. 

“Wait, little draggle-tail,” cried the miller’s 
daughter. “I will come and help you.” 

Not long after, she saw a tiny little mite stag- 
gering along with a big pitcher on his shoulder, 
and wearing a shirt all dripping with water. 
There was a fence in the way, and this little 
mite found it difficult to get over. The miller’s 
daughter took pity and ran to help. She caught 
the little creature in her warm arms and kissed 
him, and, behold, when she had kissed him, she 
saw that it was her own little brother who had 
died the day after he was born. 

“Poor little fellow!” said she. “How is it 
that your pitcher is so full and your shirt so 
wet?” 

“ Because you and Father are always weeping 
for me upon the earth above. Every tear you 
shed falls into my pitcher, and makes it heavier 
for me to carry. If you want me to be happy, 
25 


don’t cry for me, but laugh and be jolly. Now 
good-by, and give me a kiss.” 

The miller’s daughter, as soon as she got up 
on earth again, told her father all she had seen 
below. Then her father laughed, and she 
laughed, and the mill-wheel ran laughing round, 
and in all the wide, wide world there was not a 
happier family than that of the miller and his 
daughter. 



26 



GENTLE OLGA AND SPITEFUL VERA. 

Once there lived in Russia, near a great forest of 
pine-trees, a pretty little girl named Olga. Her 
father was very fond of her, but she had a step- 
mother who did not like her at all. Worse still, 
she had a stepsister who was always beating her. 

Now Olga was as sweet and gentle as her 
stepsister, Vera, was ugly and spiteful. Every 
day she grew more lovely, and this made Vera 
and her mother more unkind to her than ever. 

At last, they made up their minds to turn her 
out of the house. The wicked stepmother said 
to her husband, “ I will not let Olga stay with 
27 




us any longer. You must take her away into the 
forest, and leave her there.” 

The poor man begged and prayed that he 
might keep his little daughter. But when he 
found that there was no help for it, he hitched 
his horses to the sledge, and took her into the 
dark, thick forest. 

He did not mean to leave her to die in the 
snow, so he drove on and on, looking for some 
place where she might be quite safe. In time 
they came to a little hut which was sometimes 
used by the wood-cutters. 

“This is just the thing,” he said. They both 
got out of the sledge and went into the hut. 
First he made a great fire of logs in the stove. 
Then he brought in from the sledge a large pot 
of soup and a spinning-wheel. 

“Now, mind you do not let the fire go out,” 
he said. “When you feel hungry, you can 
warm some soup. Whatever you do, you must 
not leave the hut, or the frost will nip you. To- 
morrow I will come and see how you are getting 
on.” Then he kissed his daughter, and drove 
away. 


28 



2 9 




When Olga was left alone, she sat down to spin. 
Soon it began to grow dark, so she put some 
soup on the fire to warm. “This will do for my 
supper,” she said, “and then I will go to sleep.” 

Just when the soup was ready, Olga heard a 
knock at the door. “Who can be out in the 
forest at this time of night?” she thought, as she 
lifted the latch. 

Outside stood a very strange old man. He 
was white with snow; and ice hung down from 
his hair, his chin, and the tips of his fingers. 
Olga felt very much afraid of him, but she asked 
him who he was. 

“I am Jack Frost, my dear,” he replied. 
“Will you let me come in?” 

“ By all means,” said the girl. “Come in and 
sit down. My name is Olga.” 

J ack F rost walked into the hut, and the air turned 
icy as he entered. Poor Olga’s fingers and toes 
became quite numb, and her teeth began to chat- 
ter. But she did not let Jack Frost see how cold 
she was. 

“Will you have some of my soup?” she 
asked. 


30 



3 1 


“Thank you, dear Olga,” he replied, “ I should 
like a little.” So they sat down and had a meal, 
and Jack Frost told her tales of his home in the 
frozen North, where the ice never melts, and the 
sun is never warm. 

At last, he said that he must go, and it was 
quite time too, for the poor girl was almost 
frozen to death. 

As he went out of the door, he said, “You are 
a good child, Olga. You have listened to my 
tales, though most little girls run away from me. 
When you wake up in the morning, look out of 
the door, and you will find a lovely present.” 

Off he went into the woods, and Olga could 
hear him snapping his fingers amongst the pine- 
trees. Then she lay down by the stove to warm 
herself, and soon fell fast asleep. 

In the morning, she ran to the door as soon 
as she awoke, to see what Jack Frost had sent 
her. 

All round the hut stood twenty white horses, 
with long tails and flowing manes. Each had 
two bags tied upon its back, and every bag was 
full of gold. 


32 



Before long, Olga’s father drove up in his 
sledge. He could hardly believe his eyes when 
he saw the horses and the bags of gold. Then 
the little girl quickly ran out of the hut, and told 
him the whole story. 

They soon set off for home again. How angry 
Olga’s stepmother was, when she saw the girl 
and her father driving up to the house with all 
the horses ! She grew red with rage. 

When she heard what had happened, she said, 
“ You must take Vera to-morrow. She is much 
more clever than Olga, and Jack Frost is sure to 
give her twice as much.” 

Next day, the husband took spiteful Vera into 

33 



the forest, and left her in the little hut, with a 
pot of soup and a spinning-wheel. 

The girl put some soup on the fire to warm. 
When it was ready, she heard a knock at the 
door. So she lifted the latch, and there she saw 
Jack Frost 

“May I come in?” he asked. 

“Oh, yes! You can if you like,” she said, in a 
rough voice; “but mind you give me a better 
present than you gave to my stupid sister, Olga.” 

When Jack Frost walked in, the air became 
so very cold that Vera ran off to the stove, 
where she sat down and began to eat her soup. 

“Will you give me some of your soup, 
Vera?” asked Jack Frost. 

“Is it likely I should give you any soup?” 
said Vera. “Why, I want it all for myself. It 
is bad enough to have you making me so cold, 
without taking my soup as well.” 

This made Jack Frost very angry. He dared 
not go near the stove, where Vera was sitting, 
for fear he should melt. So he picked up some 
pieces of firewood that were lying about, and 
began to throw them at her. 

34 


She tried to hide behind the stove, but it was 
of no use. The wood hit her every time, until 
she fell to the ground more dead than alive. 
Then Jack Frost ran off among the pine-trees, 
snapping his fingers as he went. 

Next morning, the husband drove up in his 
sledge to fetch Vera and her present. But he 
found no horses and no bags of gold outside the 
hut ; and on going inside, he saw the girl lying 
half dead on the floor. So he put her into the 
sledge, and drove home as fast as his horses 
could gallop. 

When the stepmother heard what had hap- 
pened, she flew into such a rage that she fell 
down dead. 

Olga was now very rich. It was not long 
before a handsome young prince fell in love 
with her. She married him, and went to live in 
his palace. But she did not forget her father, 
and Vera. She took them with her, and they all 
lived happily ever after. 


35 



THE CRANE, THE FISH, AND 
THE LOBSTER. 

Many generations ago, a crane lived near a 
pond, and when the dry season set in, he said 
to a fish, with a bland voice, “ Are you not 
anxious for your future welfare? There is at 
present very little water and still less food in 
this pond. What will you do if the whole pond 
becomes dry?” 

“Surely,” said the fish, “what will we do?” 

The crane then said, “I know a fine large 
lake which never becomes dry. Would you not 
like to be carried there in my bill?” 

36 


But the fish did not trust the honesty of the 
crane, so the crane proposed to have one of the 
fish sent over to the lake to see it. At last, one 
of them, a big carp, decided to take the risk for 
the sake of the others. The crane carried him 
to a beautiful lake and brought him back in safety. 

Then all doubt vanished. The fish gained 
confidence, and let the crane take them one by 
one out of their pond. But the crane did not 
carry them to the large lake as he had promised. 
He flew to a big tree not very far away, and 
there he devoured them one at a time, until they 
were all gone. 

Now there was also a fat lobster in this pond, 
and as the crane wanted to eat him too, he said 
to him, “I have taken all the fish away and put 
them into a fine large lake. Come along. I 
will take you, too ! ” 

“But how will you take hold of me to carry 
me?” asked the lobster. 

“I will take hold of you with my bill,” said 
the crane. 

“You will let me fall if you carry me like that. 
I will not go with you ! ” replied the lobster. 

37 


“You need not fear,” replied the crane; “I 
will hold you quite tight all the way.” 

Then the lobster said, “Look here, Friend 
Crane, you will not be able to hold me tight 
enough; but we lobsters have a famous grip. 
If you let me catch hold of you round the neck 
with my claws, I shall be glad to go with 
you.” 

The crane agreed. He did not see that the 
cunning lobster was trying to outwit him. So 
the lobster caught hold of the crane’s neck with 
his claws as securely as with a pair of black- 
smith’s pincers. Then he called out, “Away 
with you ! ” 

The crane took him up, and soon showed him 
the lake, but then he turned off toward the big 
tree where he had devoured the fish. “ My dear 
uncle!” cried the lobster, “the lake lies that 
way, but you are taking me this way.” 

The crane answered, “Indeed! I am your 
dear uncle ! Am I ? Do you fancy that I am your 
slave, and that I have to lift you up and carry 
you about wherever you please? Now cast 
your eye upon that heap of fish bones at the 

38 


root of yonder tree. Just as I have eaten every 
one of the fish, so I will devour you as well!” 

“No, you will not,” answered the lobster. “ I am 
not so stupid as the fish that you devoured. I am 
not going to let you kill me. On the contrary, 
I am going to destroy you. If we die, we both 
die together; for I will cut off your head and 
cast it to the ground!” So saying, he gave the 
crane’s neck a grip with his claws as with a vise. 

Then the crane gasped, and with tears trick- 
ling from his eyes, and trembling with the fear 
of death, he cried out, “Oh, my lord! Indeed, I 
did not intend to eat you. Grant me my life.” 

“Very well!” replied the lobster. “Fly down 
and put me into the lake.” 

Thereupon, the crane turned round and flew 
down to the lake to place the lobster on the mud 
at its edge. But just as the crane reached the 
edge of the lake, the lobster cut his neck through 
as clean as one would cut a lotus-stalk with a 
hunting-knife. Then the lobster crawled into 
the water and was happy. 


39 


\ 'W 

d, i. 


tZf'M 



40 



MARY’S BABY BROTHER. 


Once upon a time, a peasant lived on the 
plains of Hungary with his wife and two children, 
a little girl and a baby boy. 

One day, he and his wife were getting ready 
to go to the market to sell some cows. The 
mother said to her little girl, “ Mary, we are 
going to the market. I hope you will be a very 
good girl while we are away. 

You must look after your little brother, and see 
that he eats a good dinner. Then you can take him 
into the garden to have a game ; but be sure you 
do not go out into the road.” Then the peasants 
kissed their children, and went off with the cows. 

After dinner, Mary played for some time in 
the garden with her little brother. Soon she saw 
some of the village children racing in the road, 
so she got up and watched them. 

Then she thought, “Surely no harm would be 
done if I went and joined in the game just for a 
few minutes.” Off she ran into the road, though 
she knew well that it was very naughty of her. 

While she was playing with her friends, she 
41 


saw some cranes fly into the garden. Now it is 
said that these big birds sometimes steal babies, 
so when Mary saw them enter the garden, she 
ran back to look after her brother. But he was 
nowhere to be found. 

Mary sat down and cried, and cried, and cried. 
She knew now that the wicked cranes had flown 
away with the baby. 

“Oh, what will my father and mother say?” 
she cried. “Why was I so careless as to leave 
poor little Baby all alone ? ” 

She got up at last, and ran across the fields as 
fast as her legs could carry her. She hoped that 
she would be able to find the cranes, and take 
her little brother away from them. 

Soon she came to a meadow, and there she 
saw an oven with six cakes baking in it. The 
oven called out, “Take out my cakes! Take out 
my cakes, or else they will burn ! ” 

Mary ran to the oven, and took the cakes out 
one by one. Then she said to the oven, “ Please, 
can you tell me where the cranes have flown 
with my baby brother?” 

“Yes,” said the oven. “Cross over the field 
42 



and you will find a path. Keep straight along 
the path.” Mary did as she was told, and before 
long she came to an apple-tree full of apples. 

The apple-tree called to her, “ Shake me ! 
Shake me ! My apples are far too ripe.” So she 
shook the tree until the apples fell like rain. She 
kept on shaking until there were none left on the 
tree. 

Then she gathered the apples into a heap, and 
said to the tree, “Please, apple-tree, can you tell 
me where the cranes have flown with my little 
brother?” 

“Yes,” said the tree. “Walk along by that 
43 



stream over there, until you meet an old horse. 
He is so wise that he knows everything. He is 
sure to be able to tell you. ,, 

So Mary ran along by the side of the stream, 
until she came to the wise old horse. “Dear old 
horse,” she said, “will you please tell me where 
the cranes have flown with our baby?” 

“Yes, I will tell you,” said the kind horse. 
“You must go through the hole in that rock over 
there. When you reach the other side, you will 
see a hut. There you will find your baby 
brother.” 

“Oh, thank you! Thank you!” cried Mary. 
She ran through the hole in the rock, and when 
she reached the other side, she saw the queerest 
hut in the world. It was made of ginger-bread, 
and it had a roof of sugar-candy. 

In the hut she saw an old witch; and at the 
window sat her little brother, playing with a 
golden ball. She ran to him, and caught him in 
her arms. Then she rushed back through the 
hole in the rock as fast as she could go. 

When the old witch saw what had happened, 
she called the cranes and sent them after poor 
44 



45 



Mary. “If you do not bring me back the baby 
for my supper,” she said to them, “I will tear 
you all to pieces ! ” 

Mary soon saw the cranes flying after her, so 
she ran on faster than ever, though she was 
growing very tired. 

In time, she came again to the apple-tree. 
“Hide me, apple-tree! Hide me,” she cried, “for 
the cranes are chasing me ! ” 

“You helped me,” said the apple-tree. “Now 
I will help you.” Then it covered her over with 
its leaves, and the cranes flew past without see- 
ing her. 

After a while, the little girl crept from under 
the leaves. She held the baby tightly in her 
arms and ran on. But the cranes soon saw her 
again, and chased her. 

It was not long before she came to the oven. 
“Oh, hide me! Please hide me,” she said, “for 
the cranes are flying after me!” 

“One good turn deserves another,” said the 
oven. “Climb inside and shut the door.” Mary 
was not slow at climbing in, you may be sure; 
and the cranes flew past without seeing her. 

46 


When she thought that she was quite safe, she 
climbed out again. But the cranes saw her very 
soon, and set off after her. I really do not know 
what would have happened, if her house had not 
been quite near. 

Those wicked cranes beat her head with their 
wings. They pecked at her face, and they even 
tried to tear the baby out of her arms ; but she 
kept tight hold of him, and, at last, she ran safely 
through the door of the house. 

At once she put the baby down on the rug, 
and closed the door and all the windows. The 
cranes flew round and round, screaming with 
rage; but they could not get in, and they had 
to fly away without the baby. 

When her father and mother came back from 
the market, Mary told them what had happened, 
and they were so pleased to have their little boy 
back safe and sound, that they quite forgot to 
scold the girl. 

But Mary never forgot the lesson that the 
cranes had taught her. From that day, she 
always did what her parents told her, and so she 
lived happily ever after. 

47 


THE HUNGRY CHICKS. 


Said the first little chicken, 

With a queer little squirm, 

“I wish I could find 
A fat little worm ! ” 

Said the next little chicken, 

With an odd little shrug, 

“I wish I could find 
A fat little bug! ” 

Said the third little chicken, 

With a small sigh of grief, 

“ I wish I could find 
A little green leaf! ” 

Said the fourth little chicken, 
With a faint little moan, 

“ I wish I could find 

A wee gravel-stone ! ” 

“Now, see here!” said the mother, 
From the green garden patch, 

“ If you want any breakfast, 

Just come here and scratch! ” 


48 



WANG AND HIS STAR. 

Once upon a time, there lived a little Chinese 
boy whose name was Wang. His father used 
to work in a rice-field. But he had had no 
work for a long time, for there had been no rain 
for many months. 

At last Wang’s father became so poor that 
there was nothing in the house to eat. The 
little boy could not bear to see his parents 
starve, so he said, “I will go out into the world, 
and earn some money.” 

He had not gone very far, when he met a 
man who was so old that his back was quite 
bent. On his shoulder, the old man carried a 
49 



heavy sack. Wang went up to him and said, 
“I am young and strong. Let me carry your 
sack.” 

“Thank you very much,” said the old man. 
“You are a good boy.” He gave him the sack, 
and they walked along the road together. Be- 
fore long, black clouds began to roll up, and 
soon thunder began to roar. 

Now Wang was a very brave boy, but he 
was afraid of thunder. So he dropped the sack, 
and lay down by the side of the road. He hid 
his face in his wide sleeves, and cried bitterly. 

“Why, there is nothing to be afraid of in 
thunder!” said the old man. 

“I am not so sure of that,” replied Wang. 
“If only I could see how thunder is made, 
then, perhaps, I should never be afraid of it 
again.” 

“Then you shall see how thunder is made,” 
said the man, who was really a great wizard. 
“You were very good to me when you thought 
me a poor, weak old man. Now I will do some- 
thing for you in return.” 

In a second, Wang felt himself spinning 
50 



5 1 






through the air. All around him were fleecy 
clouds. When he stood on them, they gave 
way under his feet like soft pillows. 

He parted the clouds with his hands, and 
there he saw the sea, shining like silver, far 
below. Then he saw the land, where large 
cities looked no bigger than beans. He could 
not help thinking what a fall he would have if 
his foot slipped. 

Over his head were the stars, set in the sky 
like so many diamonds. Wang found that they 
were all tightly fixed, but he was able to pick 
out a little one, which he hid in his sleeve. 

Soon he saw two great dragons, pulling a car 
with a large tub in it. As the tails of the 
dragons swung to and fro, they made that 
cracking noise which people on the earth call 
thunder. 

The tub was full of water, and three men 
were very busy pouring it out over the clouds. 
When they saw Wang, they said, “Come and 
help,” and they gave him a ladle to throw out 
the water with. 

There was one thing that you may be sure 
52 



Wang did not forget. That was to throw 
plenty of water over his own village, and over 
the rice-field in which his father used to work. 

“Thank you for your help,” said the three 
men. “ Now we will show you how to get back 
to earth again.” They took the long' rope 
53 


which they had used as reins for the dragons, 
and let it hang down from the clouds. 

Wang took hold of the rope, and quickly slid 
to the ground. Then the rope was drawn up to 
the clouds, and he saw it no more. When he 
looked round, he found himself just outside his 
village. 

How pleased he was to see the river-beds full 
of water! He knew that his father would now 
have plentyof work in the rice-fields. He ran 
home as fast as he could, and you can imagine 
how pleased his father and mother were to see 
him again. 

Wang told them all that had happened to 
him. Then he pulled the star out of his pocket, 
and placed it on the table. “How it shines!” 
said the two old people, and, indeed, it shone so 
brightly that its light filled the whole house. 

People soon began to talk of Wang’s star, 
and, at last, the emperor heard of it, and wanted 
to buy it. So he sent Wang a large sum of 
money for the star. Then the boy and his 
parents lived happily all the rest of their days. 


54 



THE ORIGIN OF THE ROBIN. 

Once in the long-ago time, an Indian warrior 
wished Manitou, the Great Spirit, to protect his 
young son. In order to gain this protection, the 
youth had to fast for twelve long days and 
nights. If he could endure this long fast, he 
would ever after be a brave among his tribe, and 
be honored by them. If he failed, as some Indian 
boys do, his people would despise him, and refuse 
to allow him to go with them to war. 

When the time of the boy’s trial came, he did 
not wish to follow his father to the lodge in the 
deep forest in which he was to do his fasting. 
He did not wish to be a warrior. He longed 
only to make people happy. But his father com- 
manded him to go, and he dared not refuse. 
During the long walk, he was sad at heart. His 
55 


father tried to cheer him. He told him how the 
people would honor him at the great feast, to be 
served after it was all over. 

When they arrived at the lodge, the father 
spread the mat which his mother had so fondly 
woven. Then the youth laid himself face down- 
ward on it. A moment later, he heard his father’s 
departing footsteps growing fainter and fainter as 
he went home. 

All through the long day and the long night, 
he lay there alone. When morning came, bring- 
ing light and gladness to others, it brought no 
joy to the sad youth in the forest. Soon the 
father appeared and asked if any dreams had 
come to him, and the youth replied, “Oh, my 
father, such dreams as you wish will never come 
to me. Let me give up my fasting and return 
with you to our wigwam.” But the father, full 
of Indian pride, refused. He tried to cheer his 
son by telling him of the days of his own fasting, 
which had ended so gloriously. 

Each day the warrior came, and always tried 
to cheer his son and help him to be brave. As 
the days went by, the boy grew weaker and 
56 


weaker. On the tenth morning, he could no 
longer rise to greet his father. “Oh, my father, 
take me home,” he faintly whispered. “I have 
had no dreams. I am so weak that death surely 
will take me before the great Manitou comes. 
Give me food that I may break this dreadful fast 
and live.” 

But the father only said, “Be brave, my son. 
Only two more days, and then the feast.” 

On the eleventh day, the youth had grown so 
weak that his voice could no longer be heard. 
Still the father said, “Be brave.” 

On the twelfth morning, with the first faint 
streaks of light, the father came, but when he 
entered the lodge, lo, it was empty! He called 
aloud, but no voice answered. Only an echo was 
heard. “Come, my son,” he called. “The great 
chief awaits you. The feast is spread.” 

As he stopped again to listen, a strange bird 
on a branch near by called to him. Thinking 
some evil spirit had lured the boy away, and had 
now returned in bird form, the brave raised his 
bow to shoot. 

“Do not shoot,” sang the bird. “No evil 



58 




spirit has harmed me, but a good spirit came to 
me in my weakness and changed me into a 
beautiful bird. Do not be angry, my father, for 
though I shall never be a warrior, I shall always 
be brave, and I shall often come to cheer you 
and all our people. I shall find my food among 
the hills and valleys, and in taking it I shall help 
our people. Mourn not for. me, my father, for 
my happiness shall come through helping others, 
not through destroying them.” 

The Indians say that this was the first Robin 
ever seen. 

They say that in the early morning, before the 
first faint streaks of dawn appear, his voice calls 
them to arise and see the coming of each beauti- 
ful day, and that when they grow tired and faint 
with hunger, he still calls to them and bids them 
always, “Be brave.” 

Though the Robin cannot endure so much as 
many other birds, he is full of courage. Even 
when the snows of March are flying, he may 
often be heard calling to those around, “Be 
brave.” 


59 



6o 






THE SISTER WITHOUT A NAME. 

Once upon a time, in a little cottage near a 
big forest, there lived three sisters. One was 
named Anna, another Barbara, but the third had 
no name, because the father and the mother 
could not agree upon a name for her. 

In this big forest, lived a young man called 
Hans the Hunter, because no one in that coun- 
try could hunt and kill wild beasts so well as he. 
Hans the Hunter had a magic horn of which he 
was very proud. Whenever he blew this horn, 
all the wild beasts in the big forest trembled for 
fear. Some ran away as fast as they could and 
hid themselves. Others stood stock-still, trem- 
bling with fright, till Hans killed them. 

One day, Hans the Hunter took it into his 
head that he would like to marry one of these 
three lovely sisters. He had often seen them, 
but he had never spoken to any of them. So 
he put on his best clothes, and set out to pay 
them a visit. 

Now, a little wolf saw Hans go, and she ran 
as fast as she could to tell the Wolf Mother, 
61 


who hated Hans the Hunter, and wanted to do 
him harm. As soon as the Wolf Mother heard 
the little wolfs tale, she hurried off, and reached 
the cottage before Hans could get there. 

The Wolf Mother did not go up to the cot- 
tage in her own shape. If she had done so, the 
sisters would never have let her in. She took 
the shape of an old beggar woman. This made 
the three sisters take such pity on her that they 
opened the door at once. 

But, oh, how sorry they were! In a twin- 
kling, the bad fairy Wolf Mother waved her 
wand, and turned the three sisters into three 
birds. Then she hobbled away from the cottage 
as fast as she could. 

As Hans came along, he saw the old woman 
hobbling away. He did not know her, so he 
gave the matter little thought. 

However, when he came to the cottage and 
found it empty, he quickly said, “Aha! That 
old woman has been up to mischief! Who is 
she? Have n’t I seen her before? Perhaps it 
is the old Wolf Mother.” 

At that, he took up his magic horn, hanging 
62 


by his side, and blew a long, loud blast. In a 
flash, the old woman was changed back into her 
own shape. Howling with spite and rage, the 
Wolf Mother ran away into the forest. 

“Well done, old horn!” cried Hans. Then 
he began to search for the sisters. He looked 
through the cottage once more, but could not 
find them. For a long time, he searched in the 
forest, but could see no one. Suddenly, the 
whole forest was filled with sweet music of birds. 
Hans looked around, and saw three birds sitting 
on the branch of a tree and singing lustily. 

He was so pleased with their singing that he 
lifted his hat and said, “Bravo! Bravo, little 
birds !” 

But as Hans was about to go on with his 
search for the three sisters, he felt his magic 
horn tremble under his arm and hit him in the 
side. 

“What is the matter, old horn? What is the 
matter?” asked Hans, with some surprise. 

Now the horn could not speak, so it only 
trembled and swung about. Hans had never 
before seen his magic horn act like this, so he 
63 



took it up and blew a long, loud blast, longer 
and louder than ever before. 

Imagine his surprise ! The three birds stopped 
their singing, flew down from the tree toward 
Hans, and as they came, he saw them change 
into the three sisters. 


64 


They thanked Hans with tears of joy. 

“Do not thank me,” said Hans. “Thank my 
magic horn, my trusty old friend, who helps me 
against all evil.” 

So the three sisters gladly thanked the magic 
horn, and then asked Hans the Hunter to take 
them safely to their cottage. 

“But,” said Hans, “you must first tell me 
your names.” 

“My name is Anna,” said the eldest, with her 
dark-colored skin and beautiful brown hair. 

“And mine is Barbara,” said the next, fair as 
a rose and fresh as dew. 

But the third, the youngest, the one with the 
lovely golden hair, stood silent. 

“And what is your name?” asked Hans the 
Hunter. 

“ I have no name,” she modestly replied. 

“ Then I shall give you one,” said Hans the 
Hunter, “for you shall be my wife.” 

And so he married her, and they lived happily 
ever after. 


65 



66 


THE SCARLET BLANKET. 


A peddler was toiling along a dusty road, 
carrying his pack on his back, when he saw a 
donkey grazing by the wayside. 

“Good day, friend,” said he. “If you have 
nothing to do, perhaps you would not mind 
carrying my load for me a little way.” 

“What will you give me?” asked the donkey. 

“I will give you two pieces of gold,” an- 
swered the peddler. 

“Agreed,” replied the donkey. So they 
journeyed on together in a very friendly man- 
ner. The donkey carried the peddler’s pack, 
and the peddler walked by the donkey’s side. 

After a time, they met a raven who was look- 
ing for worms in the roadside. 

“Good morning, black friend,” called out the 
donkey. “If you are going our way, come and 
sit on my back, and drive away the flies.” 

“What will you give me?” asked the raven. 

“I will give you three pieces of gold,” an- 
swered the donkey. 

“Agreed,” said the raven. So they went on 

67 


in high good humor. The donkey carried the 
peddler’s wares, and the raven sat on the don- 
key’s back, driving away the flies. 

After a time, they met a sparrow, and the 
raven called out, “Good day, little cousin! Do 
you want to earn some money? If so, bring 
me some worms from the bank as we go along; 
for I have had no breakfast, and I am very 
hungry.” 

“What will you give me?” asked the sparrow. 

“I will give you four pieces of gold,” an- 
swered the raven. 

“Very well,” said the sparrow; and so on 
they went, the donkey carrying the peddler’s 
pack, and the raven keeping the flies away from 
the donkey, and the sparrow bringing worms to 
the raven. 

Soon they saw in the distance a good-sized 
town. The peddler took some shawls and 
blankets out of his pack and hung them over the 
donkey’s back, so that the passers-by might see 
them, and perhaps buy some of them. On top 
lay a small scarlet blanket. 

When the sparrow saw this gay scarlet 
68 


blanket, he said to the peddler, “What will you 
take for that blanket? It looks like a good one. 
Name your price, and you shall have it; for I 
am badly in need of a blanket.” 

“The price of the blanket is five pieces of 
gold,” said the peddler. 

“That seems to me to be too dear,” said the 
sparrow. “I don’t mind giving you four.” 

“Agreed,” said the peddler; and he chuckled 
to himself, “Now I shall be able to pay the 
donkey.” 

The sparrow flew to the raven’s side, and 
whispered in his ear, “Please to pay me the four 
pieces of gold you owe me ; for we are coming 
to a town, and I must be going back.” 

“Four pieces of gold! No! That is really 
too much for bringing me a few worms,” said 
the raven, “but I will give you three, and you 
shall have them at once.” So he bent down 
over the donkey’s ear and whispered, “Friend, 
it is time you paid me the three pieces of gold 
you promised me; for the peddler will stop at 
this town.” 

“On thinking it over,” said the donkey, “I 

69 


have made up my mind that three pieces of gold 
are a great deal too much to give you for driving 
a few flies away. You must have known that I 
was only joking when I said it; but I will let 
you have two.” 

Then the donkey turned to the peddler, saying, 
“Now, good sir, your two pieces of gold, if you 
please.” 

“In a moment,” replied the peddler, and, turn- 
ing to the sparrow, said, “I really must have 
the money for the blanket at once.” 

“So you shall,” answered the sparrow, and 
cried angrily to the raven, “I want my money 
now, and cannot wait!” 

“In an instant,” answered the raven, and 
again whispered to the donkey, “Why can’t you 
pay me honestly? I should be ashamed of try- 
ing to slip out of my debts in this way!” 

“I won’t keep you waiting a second,” said the 
donkey. “Come, Mr. Peddler, give me my 
money. For shame! To cheat a poor beast 
like me! ” 

Then the peddler said to the sparrow, “Pay 
me for my blanket, or I ’ll wring your neck ! ” 

70 


And the sparrow cried to the raven, “Give me 
my money, or I ’ll peck out your eyes!” 

And the raven croaked to the donkey, “If you 
don’t pay me, I ’ll bite off your ears! ” 

And the donkey again cried to the peddler, 
“You dishonest wretch ! Pay me my money, or 
I ’ll kick you across the road ! ” 

And they made such an uproar outside the 
walls of the town that an officer came out to see 
what it was all about. Each turned to him, and 
began to complain loudly of the other. 

“You are a set of rogues and vagabonds!” 
said the officer. “Come with me!” So he led 
them straight to the market-place, where the 
mayor sat, holding court. 

“Now, whom have we here?” cried the 
mayor. “A peddler, a donkey, a raven, and a 
sparrow, — a set of worthless vagabonds! Let 
us hear what they have to say for themselves.” 

Then the peddler began to complain of the 
sparrow, and the sparrow of the raven, and the 
raven of the donkey, and the donkey of the 
peddler. 

The mayor did not pay much attention to 

7 1 


them; but he eyed the peddlers pack, and, at 
last, said, “You are a set of good-for-nothing 
fellows! I order that the peddler be locked 
up in the prison; that the donkey be soundly 
beaten ; and that the raven and the sparrow have 
their tail-feathers pulled out. As for the blanket, 
it seems to me to be the only good thing in the 
whole matter. I cannot let you keep the cause 
of such a disturbance, so I will take it for myself. 
Officer, lead the prisoners away.” 



72 


PEACH-PRINCE AND THE DEMONS. 


Long, long ago, in a village near a mountain 
from which flowed a stream of purest water, 
there lived an old man and an old woman. The 
old man was a woodcutter, and the old woman, 
his wife, kept house for him. They were very 
lonely, for they had no child, and they often 
grieved over their hard lot. 

One day, while the old man was out on the 
mountain cutting wood, his wife took some 
clothes down to the brook to wash. She had 
hardly begun, when she saw a peach floating in 
the stream. She picked it up, and took it home 
to share it with her husband. 





When he returned, she put the peach before 
him, not dreaming what was in it. He was just 
about to cut it open, when the halves of the 
peach fell apart, and there lay a little baby boy. 

The happy old couple rejoiced over him, and 
reared him tenderly. Because he was born of a 
peach, they called him Peach-Prince. 

The most wonderful thing about the child was 
his great strength. He would astonish his fos- 
ter-mother by lifting her wash-tub above his 
head without spilling a drop. 

The lad grew to be strong, and brave, and 
good. He was always kind to his foster-parents, 
and saved them much toil. He practised archery, 
wrestling, and handling the iron club, until he 
was not afraid of anybody or anything. 

He even laughed at the demons living in the 
clouds or on lonely islands in the sea. He was 
also kind to birds and animals, so that they were 
very tame, and became his friends. 

Now, there was an island far out in the ocean 
inhabited by demons with horns on their heads, 
and big, sharp tusks in their mouths. In the 
center of the island was the giant demon’s castle, 
74 


built inside of a great cave, which was full of all 
kinds of treasures. 

Peach-Prince made up his mind to conquer 
these demons and get their treasures. He pre- 
pared his weapons, and asked his foster-mother 
to make him some millet dumplings. So the old 
woman made the dumplings, which the little hero 
stowed away in a bamboo box. This he 
wrapped in a silk napkin, and flung it over his 
shoulder. 

Then he seized his iron club, and he also car- 
ried his flag over his shoulder, as the sign of 
war. The flag was of white silk, crossed by 
two black bars at the top ; and underneath these 
bars was embroidered a peach floating on a run- 
ning stream. 

Peach-Prince then bade the old folks good- 
by, and walked briskly off. He took his little 
dog with him, giving him a millet dumpling now 
and then. 

As he passed along, he met a monkey, chat- 
tering and showing his teeth. The monkey 
said, “Where are you going, Mr. Peach- 
Prince ? ” 


75 






“ I m going to the giant demon’s island, to 
get his treasures,” replied Peach-Prince. 

“What have you in your package?” 

“ Millet dumplings. Have one ? ” 

“Yes; give me one, and I will go with you,” 
said the monkey. So the monkey ate the 
dumpling; and the boy, the dog, and the mon- 
key all trudged on together. 

Soon a pheasant met them, and said, “ Good 
morning, Mr. Peach-Prince; where are you go- 
ing?” 

Peach-Prince told him, and at the same 
time offered him a dumpling. This made the 
pheasant his friend. 

Peach-Prince and his three companions jour- 
neyed on until they reached the seashore. There 
they found a big boat, on which Peach-Prince, 
with the dog and the monkey, embarked ; at the 
same time, the pheasant flew over to the island 
to find a safe place to land, so as to take the 
demons by surprise. 

Having landed, they marched up to the door 
of the castle, and then Peach-Prince beat in the 
gate with his iron club. Rushing into the castle, 

77 


he put the small demons to flight; and, dashing 
forward, the little hero reached the room where 
the giant demon was just waking up. 

With a terrible roar, the giant demon ad- 
vanced to gobble up Peach-Prince, when the 
dog ran behind and bit the demon in the leg, the 
monkey climbed up his back and blinded him 
with his paws, and the pheasant flew in his face. 
Then Peach-Prince beat him with his iron club, 
until he begged for his life and promised to give 
up all his treasures. 

The demons brought all their precious things 
out of the storehouse, and laid them on great 
trays before our little hero and his little army. 

Peach-Prince sat on a rock, with his three 
companions around him. On the right sat his 
faithful monkey, while the pheasant and the dog 
sat on the left. 

After all the demons had surrendered, they 
fell down on their hands and knees, with their 
faces in the dust, and acknowledged Peach- 
Prince as their master. Then Peach-Prince 
bade them rise up and carry the treasures to the 
largest vessel they had, and point the prow to 

78 


the mainland. This done, Peach-Prince and 
his company got on board, and the demons 
bowed farewell. 

A stiff breeze sprang up, and sent the ship 
plowing through the waters, and bent out the 
great white sail like a bow. On the prow was a 
long black tassel like the mane of a horse, which 
at every lurch dipped in the waves, and as it 
rose flung off the spray. 

The old couple, becoming anxious after their 
Peach-Prince, had traveled down to the sea- 
shore, and arrived just as the treasure-ship hove 
in sight. How beautiful it looked, with its 
branches of red coral, and shining heaps of gold 
and silver, glistening pearls and emeralds, and 
piles of agate and crystal ! 

Peach-Prince came home laden with riches 
enough to keep the old couple in comfort all 
their lives, and he himself lived in great state. 
He knighted the monkey, the dog, and the 
pheasant, and made them his body-guard. Then 
he married a beautiful princess, and lived happily 
till he died. 


79 



8o 




THE FAIRY HUNTSMEN. 


Once upon a time, two boys, named Donald 
and Rory, dwelt with their father and mother in 
a lonely cottage in Scotland. 

Late one night, they were looking for a sheep 
that had strayed from the rest of the flock. As 
they walked through the heather, they heard the 
tramp of horses, the cheers of huntsmen, and the 
music of a horn. 

“Surely, ” said Donald, “there cannot be 
huntsmen on the hills at this time of night.” 

Just as he spoke, thirteen tiny little men came 
riding over the brow of the hill. Each of them 
was dressed in green silk, and had a belt of gold. 
They had white feathers in their caps, and rode 
upon the prettiest little horses that ever lived. 

“Why, those are the fairy hunters!” cried 
Donald. “Come, Rory, let us run after them, 
and see where they go.” 

The two boys set off through the heather, 
as fast as their legs could carry them. 

By and by, the little huntsmen came to a great 
rock which stood on the side of a hill. At least 
81 


I ought to say that it was a rock in the daytime, 
and Donald and Rory knew it quite well. 

It had now become a fairy palace, with lights 
streaming from all its windows. As the tiny 
hunters rode up, a door flew open, and they all 
passed through upon their prancing horses. 

Before the gate could close again, Donald ran 
in after them. Then it shut with a clang, and 
Rory was left on the other side. You see, he 
was not quite so old as Donald, and so he could 
not run so fast. 

Poor Rory did not know what to do. Three 
times he called, “Brother! Brother! Come away 
home!” But there was no reply. So, at last, 
he had to return home all alone, and very sad at 
heart. 

When Donald ran through the gate of the 
palace, he found himself in a big yard. All 
round the yard he could see stables, into which 
the fairies were leading their horses. 

It was not long before they came out again, 
and one of them spied the boy at once. He ran 
over to him, and said, “What are you doing 
here? Do you not know that this is fairy 
82 


ground ? Go back while there is still time, or I 
promise you that you will suffer for it.” 

As Donald had come so far, he did not wish 
to turn back. So he asked politely if he 
might stay and hear the fairy music, and join in 
the fairy dances. 

“You may if you like,” said the little man in 
green, “but you will be sorry for it evermore.” 
The other twelve fairies then ran up crying, 
“Yes, you will be sorry evermore.” 

They took the boy by the hands, and flew 
with him across the yard, till they came to a 
door of gold. The door opened itself, and they 
passed into a splendid hall. 

The walls were made of silver, and the floor 
was made of gold. There were rows and rows 
of lights ; and each light hung from the roof by 
a chain of pearls. Around the hall were little 
glass tables heaped with fruits and sweets. 

This shining room was so full of fairies that 
Donald could hardly believe his eyes. All he 
could do was to stand and stare. 

Some of the fairies were eating at the tables. 
Others were playing the sweetest music. But 
83 


most of them were dancing merry jigs and reels 
in the middle of the hall. 

When the fairies saw Donald staring at them, 
they all began to laugh, and Donald could not 
help laughing too. They came crowding round 
him, and soon whirled him off in a merry dance. 
All night long he danced, till he grew so tired 
that he fell fast asleep. 

When he awoke, the sun was high in the 
sky. He found himself lying on the grass by a 
big black rock. He saw at once that this was 
the very rock which had been a fairy palace the 
night before. 

“What a good sleep I have had!” he said. 
Then he got up and stretched himself, feeling 
very stiff and sore. As he moved, he found, to 
his surprise, that a long white beard hung from 
his chin to his knees. 

He put his hand to his head, and found that 
his hair had grown right over his shoulders. 
He could see it easily when he turned his head, 
and he saw that it was now pure white. 

He thought this very strange indeed, and a 
great fear fell upon him. He walked slowly to 
84 



his father’s cottage, but no cottage could he find. 
Then he tramped to a village not very far away, 
where he had many friends. 

85 


As he walked through the streets, nothing 
seemed the same as it used to be. The houses 
were changed; new shops had been built; new 
roads had been made. What was worse, he did 
not meet a single soul that knew him. 

Poor Donald told the people his story, and 
said in dismay, “Do none of you know me?” 
But the people only shook their heads sadly 
and went away. You see, they thought he must 
be mad. 

At last, a very old man came up to him and 
said, “You must be that Donald of whom my 
grandfather used to speak. He was carried 
away by the fairies; but that was a hundred 
years ago.” 

Donald then knew that while he had danced 
with the fairies, a hundred years had flown by. 
His father, his brother, and all his friends were 
long since dead. 

So he turned his face to the hills, and walked 
slowly and sadly away. Up and up he climbed, 
till he could no longer be seen ; and no one has 
ever set eyes on him again to this day. 


86 


A FAIRY SONG. 


Come follow, follow me, 

All the fairies that there be. 

Skip lightly on the green, 

And follow Mab, your queen. 
Hand in hand we dance around, 
For this place is fairy ground. 

Upon a mushroom’s head 
Our table-cloth we spread. 

A grain of rye or wheat 
Is the food that we do eat. 
Pearly drops of dew we drink 
In acorn cups filled to the brink. 

87 


The gnat, the fly, the bee, 

They are our fiddlers three. 

All night we dance and sing 
Around our fairy ring; 

And if the moon does hide her head, 
The glow-worm lights us home to bed. 

On tops of dewy grass 
So nimbly do we pass, 

The young and tender stalk 
Ne’er bends as we do walk; 

Yet in the morning may be seen 
Where we the night before have been. 



88 


DRAKESBILL AND HIS FRIENDS. 


Drakesbill was very little, but, tiny as he was, 
he knew a thing or two. He laid up every cent 
that he earned ; and before long, he had saved a 
hundred dollars in gold. The king never did 
anything but spend money. When he heard 
that Drakesbill had some gold pieces, he made 
haste to borrow them. It made Drakesbill feel 
proud to have it said that he had lent money to 
the king. 

A year went by, — two years, three years, — 
and the king seemed to have forgotten him. 
At last Drakesbill made up his mind that he 
would go and see the king, and tell him that he 
needed the gold pieces very much. 

So, early one morning, Drakesbill went down 
the highroad toward the king’s palace, singing, 

“Quack, quack! Quack, quack! 

Shall I get my money back?” 

He had not gone far when he met Friend 
Fox. 


89 


“Good morning, my good neighbor,” said 
Friend Fox. “Where are you going so early 
in the day?” 

“I am going to the king, to ask him to pay 
me what he owes me.” 

“Take me with you!” said the Friend Fox. 

Drakesbill said, “Certainly I will take you; 
but you walk on four legs, and you will soon 
get tired. So make yourself very small, get into 
my mouth, creep under my tongue, and I will 
carry you.” 

Friend Fox thanked him very kindly, and did 
as he was told. 

Then Drakesbill set off again, singing, 

“Quack, quack! Quack, quack! 

Shall I get my money back?” 

He had not gone far when he met Friend 
Ladder, leaning against a wall, who greeted him 
with, 

“ Good day ! 

Whither away, 

So bold and gay, 

This fine, new day?” 

9 ° 


“I am going to the king, to ask him to pay 
me what he owes me.” 

“Take me with you!” said Friend Ladder. 

Drakesbill said, “Certainly I will take you; 
but you have such long wooden legs that you 
will soon get tired. So make yourself very 
small, get into my mouth, creep under my 
tongue, and I will carry you.” 

Friend Ladder thanked him, made himself very 
small, and did as he was told. 

Then Drakesbill set off again, singing, 

“Quack, quack! Quack, quack! 

Shall I get my money back?” 

He had not gone far when he met Laughing 
River, who said, 

“Good morning, oh! 

Whither do you go, 

So happy and slow, 

While the soft breezes blow?” 

“I am going to the king, for he owes me 
money, and I want him to pay me back.” 

9 1 


“Take me with you!” said Laughing River. 

Drakesbill said, “Certainly I will take you; 
but you always sleep while you run, and you 
will soon get tired. So make yourself very 
small, get into my mouth, creep under my 
tongue, and I will carry you.” 

Laughing River thanked him very kindly, and 
then did as she was told. 

Drakesbill set off again, singing, 

“Quack, quack! Quack, quack! 

Shall I get my money back?” 

A little farther on he met Neighbor Wasp- 
nest, who said, 

“Good morning, my son! 

Whither do you run, 

So full of fun, 

In the bright, warm sun?” 

“The king owes me money, and I am going 
to see him and make him pay me,” answered 
Drakesbill. 

“Take me with you!” said Neighbor Wasp- 
nest. 


9 2 


Drakesbill said, “Certainly I will take you; 
but you will soon get tired. So make yourself 
quite small, get into my mouth, creep under my 
tongue, and I will carry you.” 

Neighbor Wasp-nest thanked him very kindly, 
and then did as he was told. 

Then Drakesbill went on, singing, 

“Quack, quack! Quack, quack! 

Shall I get my money back?” 

When he came to the king’s palace, he 
climbed up the step, stood on tiptoe, and knocked 
at the door. 

“Who ’s there?” asked the doorkeeper. 

“’T is I, Drakesbill,” answered the drake. “I 
want to speak with the king.” 

The doorkeeper replied, “That is easier said 
than done. The king is in the parlor, counting 
out his money.” 

“That is just what I want,” said Drakesbill. 
“Tell him I am here. He will know what I am 
after.” 

The doorkeeper went into the parlor, but the 
king was not there ; he was in the kitchen, just 
93 



94 









sitting down to dinner, with a white napkin round 
his neck. 

“ Good ! Good ! ” said the king. “ I know the 
rascal. Fetch him in and put him with the 
turkeys and the chickens.” 

The doorkeeper went back to the door, and 
said, “Walk in, sir! The king is at dinner.” 

“Now,” said Drakesbill to himself, “I can see 
how the folks eat at the king’s table.” 

“This way!” said the doorkeeper. “Now 
step through that gate. There you are! ” 

Poor Drakesbill was in the poultry-yard. 
This made him angry. “You wait,” he said; 
“ I ’ll show you ! 

“Quack, quack, quack! 

Give my money back.” 

When the turkeys and the chickens saw what 
a funny little fellow had come among them, and 
when they heard him singing his queer song, 
they all rushed upon him. If he had not had 
his wits about him, they would have pecked him 
to death in no time. But, as good luck would 
95 


have it, he remembered Friend Fox, and he 
cried out, 

“ Friend Fox, Friend Fox, from your hiding- 
place 

Come quick, or sad will be my case! ” 

Friend Fox leaped out from his hiding-place, 
threw himself on the fowls, and tore them to 
pieces. Drakesbill began to sing again, 

“ Quack, quack, quack ! 

Give my money back.” 

But the king was very angry when the poul- 
try woman and the cook and the doorkeeper all 
rushed into the kitchen and told him what had 
happened. He ordered them to seize Drakesbill 
and throw him into the well, and thus make an 
end of him. 

“I am lost! I am lost!” cried Drakesbill, as 
he fell fluttering down into the deep, dark hole. 
“ I can never climb out of this place ! ” 

Then he happened to think of Friend Ladder, 
and he sang, 


96 


“ Ladder, Ladder, from beneath my tongue 

Come quick, or soon my song will be sung!" 

Friend Ladder leaped out quickly, and stood 
with his feet at the bottom of the well and his 
two arms resting upon the top. Drakesbill then 
climbed on his back, and soon he was up and 
singing louder than ever, 

“Quack, quack, quack! 

Give my money back.” 

The king, who was still at table, heard him 
singing, and the song made him so angry that 
he almost choked. 

“Can’t anybody make that fellow hush?” he 
cried. 

Then he ordered his men to build a great fire, 
and, when it was hot, to throw Drakesbill into it 
and burn him up. 

But Drakesbill was not much afraid this time. 
Just when the flames were highest, and the cap- 
tain of the king’s men was going to toss him in, 
he sang out, 


97 


“ River, River, outward flow, 

Or in the fire I must go ! ” 

Friend River quickly came forth, put out the 
fire, and flowed into the king’s palace four feet 
deep. Drakesbill swam hither and thither, sing- 
ing, 

“Quack, quack, quack! 

Give my money back.” 

Of course, after all this had happened, the 
king was more angry than ever. When he 
saw Drakesbill swimming about so coolly, while 
he had to stand on the table to keep his feet dry, 
he could hardly contain himself. 

“Bring that fellow here, and I ’ll finish him 
with this carving-knife! Bring him here quick!” 
he cried. 

Two servants rushed out, seized Drakesbill, 
and dragged him toward the king, who was 
standing with drawn carving-knife. The king’s 
brave men, with swords in their hands, were all 
around him. 

“It is all over with me now,” said Drakesbill. 
“I don’t see how I can live through this! ” 

98 


But just then he thought of Neighbor Wasp- 
nest, and he cried out, 

“Wasp-nest, Wasp-nest, hither fly, 

Or Drakesbill soon will have to die!” 

Then Wasp-nest waked up his wasps, and 
things changed very quickly. 

The wasps rushed out, flew at the king and 
his brave men, and stung them so badly that 
they ran and jumped right out of the windows, 
and nobody in the palace ever saw them again. 

After a while, Drakesbill remembered his 
money, and began to sing as before. Then he 
looked round to find his hundred yellow pieces 
of gold. 

He peeped into all the corners and opened all 
the drawers. It was of no use. There was not 
a dollar in the house. The king had spent 
everything. 

By and by, Drakesbill found his way into the 
room where the king’s throne stood. As he 
was very tired, he sat dbwn to rest among the 
cushions of velvet and gold. 

When the people saw the king and his brave 

99 



c 

( 


IOO 








men run away, they crowded into the palace to 
see what was the matter. The only person they 
found there was little Drakesbill, sitting by him- 
self on the throne. Then they all shouted, 

“The king is dead! Long live the king! 

Let Drakesbill rule, we ’ll ever sing.” 

One of them ran and got the golden crown. 
This they put on Drakesbill’s head and hailed 
him as king. Drakesbill had made up his mind 
not to be surprised at anything, so he sat very 
still, and took it all as a matter of course. 

“He does n’t look much like a king,” whis- 
pered a few. 

“ He will be the best king we have ever had,” 
said others. Some who had known him before 
said, “A Drakesbill is better any day than a 
king who does nothing but spend our money.” 

So that is the way in which little Drakesbill 
became king. 


101 


A KING FINDS A BEAUTIFUL HAIR. 


Once upon a time, there lived in the land of 
Egypt a huge giant. He was as black as coal, 
and so fierce and strong that every one was 
afraid of him. No one would go near him, and 
he lived all by himself in a house which he had 
built on the bank of the great river Nile. 

At last, he grew tired of living all by himself, 
so he prayed to Ra, the sun-god, to make him a 
wife. Ra heard his prayer, and made for him 
a maiden so beautiful that every other girl in 
Egypt looked quite ugly beside her. He gave 
this lovely maiden the name of Sunbeam. 

The giant took her to his big house, but she 
cried aloud for some one to come and set her 
free. 

This made the giant very angry. He beat 
the poor girl, and said to her, “I will give you 
four weeks in which to make up your mind 
whether you will marry me or not. If you then 
refuse, I will throw you into the Nile/’ 

Sunbeam did not like the idea of being thrown 
into the river, in which there lived monsters that 


102 


would soon eat her up. So she stopped weep- 
ing, though she kept on hoping that some young 
prince would ride up and rescue her before the 
four weeks were over. 

She also tried to please the cruel giant by 
praising him for his size and his strength. She 
would say, “What a fine, strong man you are! 
It is no wonder that there is not a man in the 
land who can overcome you.” 

One day, after she had been talking like this, 
she said to him, “What is it that makes you 
so much stronger and braver than any other 
man?” 

“Well, there is no harm in telling you that,” 
said the giant, who was quite pleased with her 
praises. “ It is my heart, which is so big and so 
strong that I cannot hold it in my body.” 

“Your heart is too big for your body!” cried 
Sunbeam. “Where, then, do you keep such a 
wonderful heart?” 

“Ah, that is my secret,” replied the giant. 
“But as you are to become my wife, I need not 
fear to tell you. My heart rests on the branches 
of a tree. So long as it remains there, no man 
103 


can stand against me ; but if it falls to the 
ground, then I shall lose my life.” 

“Is this tree very far away?” asked the girl. 

; 1 “By no means,” replied the giant. “At the 
edge of the river there is a circle of palm-trees ; 
in the midst of these palms grows a tree twice as 
high as the others; on its branches rests my 
heart. But take care not to go near it, for, if 
you do, the river will seize you and carry you 
away, and I shall not be able to save you.” 

Next morning, when the giant had gone off 
hunting, Sunbeam left the house. She set off to 
search for the tree in which his heart was hid- 
den ; for she thought, “ If I can cause the heart 
to fall upon the ground, I shall then be free 
from my cruel master.” 

It was not long before she saw the circle of 
palm-trees, standing by the bank of the river, 
just as the giant had told her; and in the middle 
she saw a tree twice as high as the others. She 
ran forward in great joy, but before she could 
reach the trees, the river began to overflow its 
banks and rush toward her. 

She turned and fled as quickly as she could, 
104 


and just managed to escape. But in her flight, 
a long hair fell from her head and floated off 
into the water, where it was soon carried away 
by the waves. 

Poor Sunbeam went back to the giant’s house 
very sad indeed, for she felt that there was no 
longer any hope for her. 

Meanwhile, the hair, which fell into the river, 
was rolled into a ball by the dashing waves ; it 
was carried along for miles and miles, until, at 
length, it was washed up on the bank again; 
there it lay, just outside the walls of a splen- 
did city in which Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, 
lived. 

That very day, the young king was driving 
along the banks of the river, when he noticed 
the hair-ball lying just out of reach of the waves. 
He could not make out what it was, so he sent 
one of his soldiers to pick it up. When the ball 
was brought to him, he began to unroll it, and 
found that it was a hair four feet in length. 

“What a beautiful hair!” he cried. “The 
maiden from whose head this has fallen must 
be the most lovely in the land. I will seek her 

105 



io6 



out; if she is as fair as I think, I will make her 
my queen.” 

So he offered a great reward to any person 
who could tell him how to find out the owner 
of the beautiful hair. A good many people tried, 
but all failed. One day, however, a very wise 
man, who knew a great deal about magic, came 
to the palace, and said, “O great king! I can 
show you how to find the lady for whom you 
are seeking.” 

“Do so,” replied the king, “and you shall 
have as much gold as four men can carry.” 

The wise man then asked for the hair. When 
it was brought to him, he .rolled it up into a 
ball again, touched it with a Jittle wand, and 
uttered some magic words over it, then handed 
it back to the king, saying, “Place this hair-ball 
upon the ground, and it will roll away. Follow it 
swiftly, and it will soon take you to its owner.” 

The king sent for fifty of his finest chariots, 
each drawn by three horses abreast. He filled 
the chariots with his bravest soldiers, and took 
the wise man with him in his own car, which 
was drawn by four white steeds. 

107 


They set off at full gallop after the hair-ball, 
which all the while rolled on before them. At 
the end of the fourth day, they reached the 
house of the giant; and there, in front of the 
door, the king beheld the most lovely maiden he 
had ever set eyes upon. 

Overcome by her beauty, he knelt before her, 
and, telling her who he was, begged her to become 
his wife. 

“With all my heart,” she cried; “but you 
must first destroy the cruel giant to whom I 
belong. He goes hunting all day, and returns 
at nightfall ; but it is useless to think of fighting 
him, for he is so strong that he could easily kill 
you and all your men.” 

“What, then, can I do to save you?” asked 
the king. 

“I will tell you,” replied Sunbeam; and she 
quickly made known to him the secret of her 
master’s strength. But she took care to warn 
the king that the river would seize any one who 
went near the tree in which the giant’s heart was 
hidden. 

The the king said, “ I have a very wise man 
108 


with me, whose power will perhaps be great 
enough to keep back the river; at any rate, we 
will go and see.” 

So they went down to the bank of the Nile, 
where the lofty tree stood in the middle of the 
circle of palms. 

As soon as they came near the trees, the river 
overflowed its banks and rushed toward them. 
But the wise man waved his magic wand, and a 
great wall of stone sprang up before the torrent. 

The soldiers at once began to hack at the 
trunk of the tall tree, and, in a very short time, 
it fell with a crash to the ground, bringing with 
it the giant’s heart, which was broken to pieces. 

Sunbeam’s joy on seeing this was greater than 
I can tell you, for she knew that the wicked 
giant had lost his life at the moment when the 
heart fell from the tree. 

Sunbeam then married the King of Egypt, 
and every one said that she was the best and 
most beautiful queen that had ever ruled in the 
land. 


109 



CINDER-LAD AND HIS 
SIX BROTHERS. 


Once upon a time, there lived in Norway a 
king who had seven sons. When they were 
grown up, six of them set off to find brides, but 
the youngest stayed at home. 

The six princes went to many palaces, and 
saw many princesses. At last, they came to a 
king who had six daughters. They had never 
seen such lovely young women, so they married 
them, and set off for home again. 


i io 


When they had gone a long, long way, they 
passed by a rocky hill in which a giant lived. 
The giant came out and saw them, and he 
turned them all to stone, princes and princesses 
alike. 

Their father waited and waited for his six 
sons, but they did not come back. At last, 
Cinder-lad, the youngest son, asked if he might 
go and look for his brothers. 

“No, no,” said his father; “I cannot let you 
go, for then you would stay away too.” 

But Cinder-lad had made up his mind. He 
begged and prayed so long that the king was 
forced to let him go. 

The boy set off, riding on a broken-down old 
horse. You see, his brothers had taken all the 
best horses, so he had to take what he could 
get. When he had ridden for some time, he 
met a wolf. The wolf was so hungry that he 
could not stand. 

“Dear friend,” said the wolf, “do give me 
your horse to eat. I have had nothing to eat 
for two years. I have grown so lean that the 
wind blows through my ribs.” 


1 1 1 


“If I give you my horse,” said Cinder-lad, 
“I shall have nothing to ride on.” 

“You can ride on my back,” said the wolf, 
“and I will help you when you are in need.” 

“Well,” said Cinder-lad, “since you are so 
hungry, you may take my horse.” 

When the wolf had eaten the horse, Cinder- 
lad mounted on his back. The wolf was so 
strong after his good meal that he set off with 
the prince as if he were nothing. The prince 
had never ridden so fast before. 

As they went along, Cinder-lad told him his 
story, and asked if he knew what had become of 
his six brothers. 

“Yes,” said the wolf, “ they and their six brides 
have been turned into stone by a giant. When we 
have gone a little farther, I will show them to you.” 

After a while, they came to a rocky hill. 
“Here is the giant’s house,” said the wolf, “and 
here are your six brothers and their brides 
turned into stone. Do not be afraid. Go through 
the door, and you will find a princess inside. 
She will tell you what to do to make an end of 
the giant.” 


1 12 


Cinder-lad went in, feeling very much afraid. 
In one of the rooms sat the princess, and so 
lovely a princess he had never set eyes on. 

“Oh, Heaven help you!” she said. “Where 
have you come from? It will surely be your 
death! No one can make an end of the giant 
who lives here, for he has no heart in his body.” 
Then she hid the prince under the bed. 

Presently, the giant came home, and the prin- 
cess gave him his supper. After he had eaten, 
he was in a very good temper, so the princess 
said to him, “There is one thing I should like 
to ask you, if only I dared.” 

“What thing is that?” asked the giant. 

“ Only where it is you keep your heart,” said 
the princess. 

“Ah!” said the giant. “ That is a thing you 
have no right to ask about; but if you must 
know, it lies in that cupboard over there.” Then 
he gave a great laugh and went to bed. 

Next morning, the giant went out early, and 
strode off into the woods. You may be sure 
that it was not long before Cinder-lad and his 
princess were at the cupboard, hunting for the 
ii3 


heart. But though they looked for it a long 
time, they could not find it. 

“He did not tell us the truth this time,” said 
the princess, “but we will try him once more.” 
So she picked all the prettiest flowers she could 
find, and strewed them around the cupboard. 

When the time came for the giant to return 
home again, Cinder-lad crept under the bed. 
Just as he was well under, in came the giant. 
He soon noticed the flowers around the cup- 
board, so he asked who had put them there. 

“Oh,” said the princess, “I could not help 
doing it, when I knew that your heart lay 
there.” 

“ Nonsense ! ” said the giant. “ My heart does 
not lie there. You will never know where it is.” 

But the princess begged so prettily that the 
giant could hold out no longer, and was forced 
to say, “Far, far away in a lake lies an island; 
on that island stands a church ; in that church is 
a well; in that well swims a duck; in that duck 
there is an egg; and in that egg lies my heart.” 

Early in the morning, the giant strode off 
again into the woods. Then Cinder-lad said 
1 14 



good-by to the princess, and went off to find the 
giant’s heart. When he got outside the door, 
there stood the wolf, waiting for him. 

The prince told the wolf all that had hap- 
pened, and asked him if he knew the way to the 
well in the church. The wolf told him to jump 
on his back, and he would soon find the way. 
Off they went over hedges and fields, over hill 
and dale. 

At last, they came to the lake, and the wolf 
swam to the island, with the prince on his back. 
They found the church on the island, and soon 
came to the well. There lay the duck, just as 
the giant had said. 

Cinder-lad grasped the duck in one hand. 
1 15 


Just as he lifted it from the water, the duck 
dropped the egg. It was lucky for the prince 
that he was able to catch the egg before it fell 
into the well. Then the wolf told him to press 
the egg. As soon as he did so, he heard the 
giant crying out with pain. 

“Spare my life,” cried the giant, “and I will 
do all that you wish ! ” 

Then the wolf said to Cinder-lad, “ Tell him to 
bring back to life your six brothers and their 
brides, whom he turned into stone.” 

The giant did so at once. 

“Now,” said the wolf, “press the egg in two.” 

Cinder-lad pressed the egg in two, and the 
giant burst to pieces. Then the prince rode back 
on the wolf to the giant’s house. 

There stood his six brothers and their brides, 
all alive and merry. So Cinder-lad fetched out 
the princess who was to be his own bride. 
They all set off home again to their father’s 
house. 

How glad the old king was when he saw 
them ! He made a great feast; and if they have 
not done feasting — why, they are feasting still. 

1 16 


THE EMPEROR’S INVISIBLE ROBE. 


Many years ago, there lived an emperor who 
was very fond of new clothes. He spent all his 
money so that he might have a coat for every 
hour of the day. 

In the great city in which he lived, it was 
always very merry. Every day, a number of 
strangers arrived there. One day, two rogues 
came. They said, “We can weave the finest of 
fabrics. Not only are the colors and the pat- 
terns uncommonly beautiful, but the clothes 
made of these fabrics are so wonderful that they 
are invisible to any one who is stupid or unfit 
for his office.” 

“Those would be capital clothes!” thought 
the emperor. “If I wore them, I should be 
able to find out what men in my empire are not 
fit for their places ; I could tell the clever from 
the stupid. Yes, the cloth must be woven for 
me directly.” And he gave the two rogues a 
great deal of money, that they might begin their 
work at once. 

Thereupon, they put up two looms, but they 
1 17 



1 1 8 




had nothing at all on them. They at once 
demanded more gold. This they put into their 
pockets ; and then they worked at the empty 
looms until late into the night, only pretending 
to weave. 

“ I should like to know how far they have got 
on with the stuff,” thought the emperor, after a 
while. But he felt quite uncomfortable when he 
thought that those who were not fit for their 
offices could not see it. He believed, indeed, 
that he had nothing to fear for himself, but yet 
he preferred first to send some one else to see 
how matters stood. All the people in the city 
knew what peculiar power the cloth possessed, 
and all were anxious to see how bad or how 
stupid their neighbors were. 

“I will send my honest old minister to the 
weavers,” thought the emperor. “ He can judge 
best how the stuff looks, for he has sense, and 
no one understands his office better than he.” 

Now the good old minister went out into the 
hall where the two rogues sat working at the 
empty looms. “Mercy on us!” thought the 
old minister as he opened his eyes wide, “ I can- 

119 


not see anything at all ! ” But he did not say 
this. Both the rogues begged him to be kind 
enough to come nearer, and asked if he did not 
like the colors and the pattern. Then they 
pointed to the empty loom, but the poor old 
minister could see nothing, for there was nothing 
to see. 

"‘Mercy!” thought he. “Can I, indeed, be 
so stupid? I never thought so, and not a soul 
must know it. Am I not fit for my office? No, 
it will never do for me to tell that I could not 
see the stuff.” 

“What do you think of it?” asked one of the 
rogues. 

“Oh, it is charming, quite enchanting!” an- 
swered the old minister, as he peered through 
his spectacles. “What a fine pattern, and what 
colors! Yes, I shall tell the emperor that I am 
very much pleased with it.” 

“Well, we are glad of that,” said both the 
rogues; and then they named the colors, and 
explained the strange pattern. The old minister 
listened attentively, so as to be able to repeat it 
when the emperor came. And he did so. 


120 


Now the rogues asked for still more money, 
and more silk and gold, which they declared 
they wanted for weaving. They put all into 
their own pockets, and not a thread was put 
upon the loom ; but they continued to work at 
the empty frames as before. 

The emperor soon sent another honest states- 
man to see how the weaving was going on, and 
how soon the cloth would be ready. He fared 
just like the first: he looked and looked, but, as 
there was nothing to be seen except the empty 
looms, of course he could see no cloth. 

“Is not that a pretty piece of stuff?” asked 
the two rogues ; and they made believe to dis- 
play and to explain the handsome pattern which 
was not there at all. 

“I am not stupid,” thought the man; “it 
must be that I am not fit for my office. It is 
strange, but I must not let it be noticed.” And 
so he praised the stuff which he did not see, and 
expressed his pleasure at the beautiful colors 
and the charming pattern. “Yes, it is enchant- 
ing,” he said to the emperor. 

All the people in the town talked of the beau- 


121 



» 


122 













tiful stuff. The emperor wished to see it him- 
self, while it was still on the loom. With a 
number of chosen men, among whom were also 
the two honest statesmen who had already been 
there, he went to the two cunning rogues, who 
were now weaving with might and main with- 
out fiber or thread. 

“Is that not splendid?” said the two old 
statesmen who had already been there once. 
“Does not your Majesty remark the pattern and 
the colors?” And then they pointed to the 
empty loom, for they thought that the others 
could see the cloth. 

“What ’s this?” thought the emperor; “I 
can see nothing at all ! This is terrible ! Am I 
stupid? Am I not fit to be emperor? That 
would be the most dreadful thing that could 
happen to me.” So thinking, he said aloud, 
“Oh, it is very pretty.” And he nodded in a 
contented way, and gazed at the empty loom, 
for he would not say that he saw nothing. 

The whole company with him looked and 
looked, and saw nothing, any more than he; 
but, like the emperor, they said, “That is 
123 


pretty ! ” and advised him to wear the splendid 
new robe for the first time at the great proces- 
sion that was soon to take place. 

“It is splendid!” went from mouth to mouth. 
On all sides there was rejoicing, and the emperor 
gave the rogues the title of Imperial Court 
Weavers. 

The night before the procession, the rogues 
were up, and had lighted more than sixteen 
candles. The people could see that they were 
hard at work, completing the emperor’s new 
robe. The rogues pretended to take the stuff 
down from the loom ; they made cuts in the air 
with great scissors; they sewed with needles 
without thread; and, at last, they said, “Now 
the robe is ready.” 

The emperor came with his nobles to put on 
the robe. The two rogues lifted up one arm of 
the garment, as if they were holding something, 
and said, “See! It is as light as a spider’s 
web.” 

“Yes,” said all the nobles; but they could not 
see anything, for nothing was there. 

“Will your Imperial Majesty,” said the rogues, 
124 


“please put on the new robe here in front of the 
great mirror?” 

The emperor assented, and the rogues pre- 
tended to put on him the new robe; and the 
emperor turned round and round before the 
mirror. 

“Oh, how well it looks! How capitally it 
fits!” said all. “ What a pattern ! What colors! 
It is a splendid robe!” 

Then the master of ceremonies announced, 
“They are standing outside with the canopy 
which is to be borne above your Majesty in the 
procession.” 

“Well, I am ready*” replied the emperor. 
“Does the robe not suit me well?” And then 
he turned again to the mirror, for he wanted it 
to appear as if he were greatly pleased. 

The two chamberlains who were to carry the 
train stooped down with their hands toward the 
floor, just as if they were picking up the mantle; 
then they pretended to be holding something in 
the air. They did not dare to let it be noticed 
that they saw nothing. 

So the emperor went in the procession, under 

125 


the rich canopy, and every one in the streets said, 
“How handsome is the emperor’s new robe! 
What a train it has! How well it fits him!” 
No one would let it be known that he could see 
nothing, for that would have shown that he was 
not fit for his office, or that he was very stupid. 
No royal robe had ever had such a success as 
this. 

“But he has no robe at all!” a little child 
cried out. 

“Just hear what that innocent says!” said the 
father; and one whispered to another what the 
child had said. 

At length all the people said, “But he has no 
robe at all ! ” 

The emperor heard them, and he thought to 
himself, “ I guess they are right, but I have 
begun this, and I must go on with it to the end.” 

So he held himself a little higher, and marched 
back to the palace, bravely wearing the new 
robe which nobody could see at all. 


126 


TEN AT ONE STROKE. 


Long ago, in India, there lived a humble 
weaver. He was a maker of carpets, and as he 
was very clever at his work, his wares always 
fetched a good price. 

One hot day, he was working at a beautiful 
carpet, when a gnat came buzzing over his head. 

“Go away, you troublesome little insect,” he 
cried, trying to brush it off with his hand. 

But the gnat would not allow itself to be 
127 



driven away, and the weaver began to fear that 
it would sting him. 

So he went to a cupboard, and, taking out a 
pot of honey, smeared some on the ground, 
hoping that the gnat would be caught fast in the 
sticky fluid. But now he was worse off than 
ever, for the sweet smell attracted quite a swarm 
of gnats, which buzzed all over the weaver’s 
little room. 

At this, he became angry, and, seizing his 
shuttle, brought it down upon a number of 
insects which had gathered around the honey. 
When he counted those he had killed, he found 
no fewer than ten. 

“What a brave fellow I am!” he cried, 
pleased at his own cleverness. “Very few men 
have killed ten at one stroke, I ’ll be bound. 
All the world must hear of this.” 

Then he took his shuttle and a loaf of bread 
tied up in a bundle, and set off to tell the world 
of his great deed. Wherever he went, he 
showed the people his shuttle, crying, “Ten at 
one stroke, my friends! Ten at one stroke!” 

Every one thought that he meant ten men at 
128 


one stroke, and began to think him a very brave 
man, indeed. 

At length, he came to a great city, and entered 
the gates, crying as usual, “Ten at one stroke!” 

A crowd soon gathered round him, and when 
they heard his words, they said, “This must be 
a great hero, indeed. Perhaps he has come here 
to free us from our cruel enemy.” 

The weaver pricked up his ears at this, and 
asked, “Who, pray, is the enemy you are talk- 
ing about? Just tell me, and I will quickly rid 
you of him, for did I not kill ten at one stroke?” 

“He is a dreadful elephant,” they replied, 
“that comes here every day to make a meal of 
one of us. Many strong men have gone out to 
fight him, but none have ever returned.” 

“Only an elephant!” cried the weaver. “I 
will make short work of him. Why, an elephant 
is mere child’s play to a man like me!” 

So the people took him to the king, and said, 
“ Here is the hero who is going to save us. He 
will kill the elephant all by himself.” 

“If you can do this,” said the king to the 
weaver, “you may be sure that you will be well re- 
129 



warded. You shall have my own bow and spear 
with which to fight against this dreadful monster.” 
130 


“Ah! I have a better weapon than either of 
those,” said the weaver, “and that is my shuttle 
here. It has done good work in its time, I can 
tell you.” 

It was a fine sight to see the weaver setting 
off next day to kill the elephant. All the people 
of the city gathered in crowds upon the walls, 
and cheered him again and again as he marched 
out of the gates, carrying his shuttle and his loaf 
still tied up in the bundle. 

Before long, the elephant appeared in the dis- 
tance. When the huge animal saw the weaver, 
he rushed at him, roaring with rage, with his 
trunk up in the air, and his mouth open as if to 
eat the man up in one mouthful. 

At this terrible sight, the weaver’s courage 
forsook him, and he turned and ran for his life, 
dropping his bread and his shuttle in his fright. 

Now the bread had many sweet spices in it, 
which gave to it a very pleasant smell. As the 
elephant charged past, he smelled these spices, 
and, catching up both bread and shuttle with his 
trunk, gobbled them up without stopping for a 
moment. But the shuttle stuck in his throat 


and choked him, and before he could reach the 
weaver, he dropped down dead. 

Now when the people on the city walls saw 
the monster fall, they could scarcely believe 
their eyes. But their surprise was even greater, 
when they ran up and found the weaver sitting 
on the elephant’s dead body, quietly dragging 
his shuttle from its throat. 

“Elephants are clumsy great creatures,” said 
he; “but they have not really much strength. I 
just thrust my shuttle into its throat, and it fell 
down dead.” 

Then the people all cried, “This is the bravest 
man in the world. He has killed ten at one stroke, 
and now he has freed us from our enemy.” 

The king made the weaver the chief of his 
army, and gave him a special house of his own 
to live in. Here he dwelt in peace and happi- 
ness, until one day there came news that a fierce 
tiger was roaming up and down the country, 
eating all the men, women, and children that it 
could find. 

The king sent for our friend, and said to him, 
“I know what a brave man you are, and I have 
132 


an offer to make to you. If you can catch this 
fierce tiger for me, I will give you my only 
daughter in marriage, and you shall have half 
my kingdom into the bargain.” 

“That is just the thing for a man like me,” 
thought the weaver. “A beautiful princess and 
half a kingdom are not to be won every day.” 

So he said to the king, “I agree to your 
bargain. I shall soon catch the tiger, for a man 
who can kill a great elephant need not fear such 
a poor creature as a tiger.” 

He tied a piece of cord around his waist, and, 
taking with him his shuttle, he set off on his 
errand. Before long, he came to the edge of a 
forest, and saw the tiger crouching among the 
long grass. No sooner did the fierce animal 
see him than it rushed at him with foaming 
mouth and gleaming eyes. 

But our nimble friend did not wait for the 
cruel teeth to crunch his bones. He ran to the 
nearest tree, and climbed up like a monkey. 
The tiger sat down at the foot of the tree, lick- 
ing his lips, and thinking what a fine meal he 
was going to have. 


133 


There he sat for six days; but the weaver did 
not come down, for he had no wish to serve as 
a dinner for a hungry tiger. On the seventh 
day, the animal began to doze, and our friend 
thought that now was his chance to escape. 

But at the very first step he made, the tiger 
awoke and jumped up at him with a roar. The 
weaver, in terror, dropped his shuttle, which fell 
crosswise into the animal’s jaws, and stuck there 
so that he could not close them again. 

“Now I have you, my fine fellow!” cried the 
weaver, and he climbed down the tree. 

Taking the cord from his waist, he tied it 
around the tiger’s neck; for the animal, because 
of the shuttle between its jaws, was too much 
frightened to try to run away. 

The hero then went back to the king, taking 
his prisoner with him ; and the king had to keep 
his promise. So the brave weaver married the 
king’s daughter, and lived happily enough all 
the rest of his days. 


*34 



135 


THE SMART YOUNG TIGER. 


Once there was a tiger who lived with his 
wife and three children in a large forest. After 
a long time, this tiger grew old, and became ill. 
When he knew that he must soon die, he called 
his three children to him, and said to them, 

“ Remember that the tiger is the lord of the 
jungle, but there is one animal you must beware 
of, and that is man. On no account, hurt or kill 
him.” Then the old tiger turned over and died. 

The two elder sons followed the advice of 
their father, and never thought of going near 
the dwelling-place of man. But the youngest 
son, who was a headstrong fellow, thought he 
would like to hunt this animal man. So, one 
morning, this smart young tiger set out upon 
his journey. His mother begged of him not to 
go, but go he would. 

The tiger had not traveled far when he met an 
old worn-out bullock, and he asked, “What sort 
of an animal are you, pray? Are you a man?” 

“No, indeed,” replied the other; “I am only 
a poor bullock.” 


136 


“Well, can you tell me, then, what sort of an 
animal man is? I am going to find one and kill 
him.” 

“Now, I beg of you, young tiger, don’t go 
near man. He is a faithless creature. When I 
was very young, I was man’s servant. You can 
see by these scars how I have been repaid for 
my faithful work. Now that I am old, he has 
turned me out into this wild jungle to live as 
best I may.” 

But the smart young tiger only laughed at 
the warning of the old bullock, and went on his 
way. Next he met an old elephant. 

“Who are you, please?” asked the tiger. 
“Are you a man?” 

“No, indeed,” Said the elephant. “I am only 
a poor worn-out elephant.” 

“Is that so?” said the tiger. “I wonder if 
you can tell me what sort of an animal man is ? 
I am hunting for one to kill and eat.” 

“Beware how you hunt man. He is a faith- 
less creature,” said the elephant. “Look at me. 
I am lord of the jungle, but man tamed me, and 
made me his servant. When I was young, I 
137 


had an attendant to wash me, and groom me, 
and give me my food. But now that I am too 
old to do his work, man forgets all those years of 
toil, and turns me out into the jungle.” 

The young tiger laughed again, and went on. 
By and by, he came to a woodcutter. He 
stood and watched him for a time, and then he 
went up to him, and said, “What sort of an 
animal are you, please?” 

“ Why,” exclaimed the woodcutter, “ what 
an ignorant tiger you must be! Cant you see 
that I am a man?” 

“Oh! Are you? Then I am in luck; for I 
am hunting for a man, to kill him and eat him,” 
said the tiger. 

The woodcutter laughed, and replied, “Kill 
and eat me? Don’t you know that man is much 
too clever to be killed and eaten by a tiger? 
Come with me, and I will show you some things 
that only man knows.” 

This pleased the young tiger very much, and 
the two started out together for the man’s home. 
When they came to the house, which was made 
of very strong, heavy timbers, the man said, 

138 


“Now this is a house. Let me show you how 
we use it.” Then he went inside, locked the 
door, and called out to the tiger, “You see how 
much more man knows than the tiger. Man 
has a fine house, but the tiger has a cave in the 
earth.” 

When the tiger heard the man talk in this 
way, he was very angry, and cried out, “What 
right has an ugly creature like you to own such 
a fine house? You come out and give it to 
me ! ” 

So the man came out of the house, and the 
tiger went in. Then the smart young tiger 
called out, “Now look at me! Don’t I look 
nice in my fine house?” 

“Oh, very fine, indeed!” said the man, as he 
closed the door and bolted it on the outside. 
Then the man walked away, with his ax over 
his shoulder, leaving the smart young tiger 
locked up in the house to starve to death. 

After a few days, the smart young tiger grew 
hungry and thirsty. He tried and tried to get 
out, but the house was built too strong for him 
to break through. He was wondering what he 
139 



140 













could do, when he spied a little musk-deer at a 
stream near by. He called out to her, “Oh, 
Sister Deer, will you please, please, open the 
door for me?” 

The deer was frightened, but she was sorry 
for the tiger, so she said, “Oh, Uncle Tiger! I 
am afraid that you will kill me and eat me if I 
open the door for you.” 

“No, no, I will not,’’ replied the tiger. “I 
promise you faithfully I will not touch you.” 

So the deer opened the door, and the tiger 
sprang out and ran straight at the deer. “I am 
sorry for you, Sister Deer,” he cried, “but I 
must eat you, because I am so very hungry.” 

The poor deer was dreadfully frightened, and 
cried, “Oh, Tiger, you promised me you would 
not touch me. After what I did for you, you 
ought to keep faith with me.” 

“Faith?” said the smart young tiger. “What' 
is faith? I don’t believe there is such a thing as 
faith.” 

“Well, let us make a bargain, then,” replied 
the deer. “We will ask the first three people 
we meet, and if they all agree there is no such 
141 


thing as faith, then you may kill me and eat 
me.” 

“ I ’ll agree to that, Sister Deer,” said the tiger. 
“We will call that a bargain.” So the smart 
young tiger and the musk-deer set off together. 

Soon they came to a tree, and the deer said, 
“Good morning, Brother Tree. We have a ques- 
tion we should like to have you decide for us.” 

The tree waved its branches and replied, 
“What is your question, Sister Deer? I will do 
my best to help you.” 

The musk-deer told the tree the whole story. 
“Now,” sihe said, “will you please tell me 
whether there is such a thing as good faith ? ” 

The tree shook its branches and said slowly, 
“ I am bound to say that my experiences in life 
lead me to believe that there is no such thing as 
good faith in the world.” 

They thanked the tree, and went on. Soon 
they met a buffalo with her calf. The deer told 
her the story, just as she had told it to the tree, 
and asked her the same question. 

The buffalo would have liked very much to 
save the deer’s life, but she was bound to answer 
142 


truthfully, so she said, “Believe me, there is no 
such thing as good faith in the world.” 

The smart young tiger was already beginning 
to show his teeth, and was almost ready to eat 
the deer then and there, but the deer cried, 
“Wait, Uncle Tiger! Just wait until we ask 
the third person. If this person says that there 
is no such thing in the world as good faith, then 
you may kill me and eat me.” 

The tiger agreed, and they started along to- 
gether again. The deer felt very sad, indeed. 
After a while, they came to a rabbit, hopping 
along the road. “Good morning, Brother Rab- 
bit,” the deer called out to him. “We have a 
question we should like to have you decide for 
us. My life depends upon your answer.” 

“I shall be glad to do the best I can for you, 
Sister Deer,” said the rabbit. “What is your 
question?” 

Then the deer told the rabbit the story from 
beginning to end, and what the tree and the 
buffalo had said, and asked him if he could tell 
whether there was any such thing as good faith 
in the world. 


H3 


“ Dear me ! ” the rabbit replied, “ that is a very 
serious question. You say that you were in the 
woodcutters house, Sister Deer?” 

“ No, no,” interrupted the tiger. “ It was not 
the deer. I was in the woodcutter’s house.” 

“Oh, I see,” said the rabbit. “Sister Deer 
must have locked you in, then.” 

“Oh, no!” the deer explained. “You don’t 
seem to understand at all; that is not how it 
happened.” 

“Well, well! This is very much mixed. 
Suppose you take me back to where this hap- 
pened, and show me just what took place.” 

So the three went off together to the wood- 
cutter’s house. 

“ Now, where were you, Sister Deer, at the 
time when the tiger spoke to you?” asked the 
rabbit. 

“Oh, I was down here,” said the deer, and she 
ran down to the brook. 

“Yes, yes! I begin to see,” said the rabbit. 
“Now, where were you, Uncle Tiger?” 

“Why, I was inside the house, like this,” said 
the smart young tiger, and he went into the house. 
144 



“And I suppose the door was shut like this,” 
said the rabbit, as he quickly closed the door 
and slyly slipped in the bolt. 

Then the rabbit and the deer went off to their 
own homes, leaving the smart young tiger 
locked up. 


145 



146 






CARLOS AND THE MAGIC HORSE. 


There once lived in Spain a king who had 
three very beautiful daughters. He loved them 
so much that he could not bear to part with 
them. So when they were old enough to marry, 
he shut them up in a strong tower which he 
had built on a high mountain. This mountain 
had straight sides, and was so smooth that no 
one could possibly climb it 

You would have thought the poor princesses 
quite safe in such a prison ; but their father was 
not content. As he was a magician, he sent 
three enchanted horses to guard his daughters, 
giving them orders to trample to death any one 
who came near the maidens. 

"Now,” said he to himself, “lean rest in 
peace, for I am quite sure that no one can reach 
my daughters.” 

So sure was he, indeed, that he sent mes- 
sengers all over Spain, crying out that any one 
who could bring the three princesses from their 
high tower might have one of them as his wife. 

Brave young knights came riding from all 

H7 


parts of the country, dressed in shining armor 
and mounted upon prancing steeds; but not one 
of them could climb a foot up the steep sides of 
the mountain on which the tower of the prin- 
cesses was built. 

One fine day, three brothers arrived from the 
far north of Spain, and asked if they might try 
to win the maidens. 

“Try by all means,” said the king, with a 
great laugh, for it amused him to see so many 
noble Spaniards beaten by his cleverness. 

Two of the brothers set off at once upon their 
swift horses; and they sang a merry song as 
they rode over hill and dale, for they made quite 
certain of winning the princesses. 

The youngest brother, who was called Carlos, 
remained behind. He went into the market and 
bought a very odd set of things. There was first 
of all a big cart with two oxen; then there was 
a strong cord a mile in length; and lastly, a 
great bag of long nails and a hammer. 

People who saw him laughed at his pur- 
chases; but, as you will see, he knew quite well 
what he was about. 


148 


He set off on his journey, and long before he 
reached the mountain with his slow oxen, he met 
his two brothers riding back home. They were 
no longer singing, and their sad faces showed that 
they had given up hope of reaching the tower. 

When the brothers saw Carlos driving along 
in his great ox-cart, they sneered at him and 
said, “You might just as well turn back with us, 
for it is quite useless for you to try where we 
have failed. Why, the mountain is as slippery 
as glass and as steep as a house.” 

“ Never mind,” said the young knight. “ I am 
not going back home without having at least one 
try; and, what is more, I am sure that I shall 
succeed. Come with me, and when I have 
freed the princesses, you shall have two of them 
as your brides.” 

At these bold words, the brothers laughed 
loudly, but they returned with Carlos just to 
see what he was going to do. In time they 
came to the steep, smooth walls of the mountain, 
which stretched upward for nearly a mile. Car- 
los at once set to work, though he saw that his 
task would be no easy one. 

149 



He first tied his long cord safely around his 
waist, and slung his bag of nails around his 
neck. Then he took his hammer, and drove a 
nail into the side of the mountain. He stood 
upon this nail, and drove in another higher up, 
on to which he climbed. 

After hammering and climbing, and climbing 
and hammering, for a whole week, he at last 
reached the top of the mountain. 

150 



When he set foot upon the summit, Carlos 
saw before him the strong tower in which the 
princesses lived. Just as he was wondering 
how he could enter it, the door opened, and out 
stepped the most beautiful maidens he had ever 
dreamed of. 

They cried out with surprise when they saw 
the knight, and the eldest said to him, “Noble 
sir, what has brought you here, and how did 
you succeed in reaching our tower? Go back, I 
beg you, while there is still time, for we are 
guarded by wild horses that will trample you to 
death if they see you here.” 

Then all three began to weep, but Carlos 
replied, “Do not be sad, lovely maidens. All 
will be well with me. I have come to save you, 
and if you only do as I bid you, we shall all 
reach the ground again unharmed.” 

Without losing any more time, he unwound 
the cord from his waist, and tied one end of it 
around the eldest princess. Then he lowered 
her over the side of the mountain until she 
reached the ground at the foot. One of her 
sisters was next lowered in the same way. 

151 


When it came to the turn of the third princess, 
she unclasped a necklace of pearls from her throat 
and gave it to Carlos, saying, “Please take this 
little trinket, and keep it in memory of me. 
Never part with it, for it will help you when you 
are in trouble.” 

Carlos thanked the princess for her gift, and 
fastened it carefully to his belt. Then he tied 
the cord around the girl’s waist, and it was not 
long before she stood with her sisters at the foot 
of the mountain. 

Meanwhile, the two knights below had been 
watching their brother’s success with rage and 
envy. No sooner had he lowered the third 
princess than they snatched the rope from his 
hands, mounted their swift steeds, and sped off 
like the wind with the maidens. 

They never stopped until they reached the 
palace of the king, who could hardly believe his 
eyes when he saw his daughters. He raged 
and stormed, but it was all no good. He had 
to keep his promise, and the young knights were 
at once married to the two elder princesses. 

Poor Carlos was in despair when he saw the 
152 


trick that had been played upon him. He 
wrung his hands, crying, “What have I done to 
deserve such treatment as this ? By the time I 
have climbed down the mountain, my brothers 
will be far away, and I shall never see the prin- 
cesses again.” 

Before he had time to begin his descent, he 
heard a terrible banging and trampling and 
screaming inside the tower. 

The three enchanted horses had just found 
out that the princesses were missing. They 
came rushing out of the tower, snorting and 
plunging with rage, and breathing forth fire from 
their nostrils. 

On seeing Carlos, they ran at him as if to 
trample him to death, and he gave himself up 
for lost. But, strange to say, just as he thought 
his end had come, the horses stopped right in 
front of him, without hurting a hair of his head. 

Carlos then remembered the necklace which 
the young princess had told him would help him 
in trouble. 

The horses were now as gentle as lambs. 
They frisked around him, rubbing their heads 
1 53 


against his jacket, and neighing with pleasure 
when he stroked their silky necks. At last, see- 
ing how tame they were, Carlos leaped upon the 
back of the largest one. 

At once the horse sprang over the side of the 
mountain into the air. Down, down they went, 
till Carlos lost his breath, and thought that 
every moment would be his last. But the horse 
floated to the ground as lightly as a feather, and 
stood quite still until the youth had jumped from 
his back. 

Then the animal said to him, “Master, pluck 
a hair from my tail. If you ever need my help, 
blow upon this hair, and I shall at once appear 
before you.” 

The young man plucked a hair, and before he 
could say a single word, the horse sprang into 
the air and disappeared. 

Carlos then set off in search of his oxen, and 
found these quiet creatures standing just where 
he had left them. He mounted into the cart, 
and set off slowly and sadly for the city where 
the king lived, wondering all the time what he 
should do next. 


154 


It was a long, long way to the city, and it 
took a long, long time, so that before he arrived, 
his two brothers had already been married to 
their princesses. He was not even in time for 
the great feast which had been made in honor of 
the weddings, but people were still talking about 
it when he reached the city. 

He thought at first of going to the king and 
telling him the whole truth of the matter. But 
he gave up the idea, for he felt sure that the 
king would never believe the story. He did not 
dare to tell his brothers that he had escaped, for 
they would have killed him in order to keep 
their secret. 

So he sold his cart and oxen, and, dressing 
himself up as a poor shepherd, he lived all alone 
in a little hut outside the gates of the city. 

“ I shall wait quietly here,” he said to himself, 
“until I can see some chance of winning the 
youngest princess as my bride.” 

Now it so happened that after Carlos had 
been living in his little hut for about a year, the 
king began to lose his sight. He was in great 
alarm at this, for he found that his own magic 
155 



powers were not strong enough to cure the 
trouble. 

So he sent in great haste for all the doctors 
and magicians in the country. They came in 
hundreds, and tried all kinds of cures, but not 
one did the king any good. His sight grew 
dimmer and dimmer, until at last he could not 
see at all. 

His grief at the loss of his sight was so great, 
that he shut himself up in a secret chamber, and 

156 


refused to eat for four whole weeks. Then he 
sent out messengers all over Spain, saying that 
any one who could restore his sight should 
marry his youngest daughter, and should reign 
after him. 

Carlos, of course, heard of this, and he thought, 
“If I can only cure the king, my misfortunes 
will be at an end.” So he took out the hair 
which he had plucked from the tail of the en- 
chanted horse, and walked into the open country, 
where there was no one to see him. 

Then he blew gently upon the horse’s hair, 
and at once the beautiful animal appeared before 
him. 

“Master,” he cried, “you called me. Pray 
tell me what I can do to help you.” 

The young knight told him about the king’s 
trouble, and said, “Dear horse, if you can only 
give me something to bring back the king’s 
sight, I shall be the happiest knight in Spain, 
for I shall have my princess, and I shall win a 
crown for myself into the bargain.” 

“Oh, that is the easiest thing in the world!” 
replied the horse. “ I know a fountain, far away 
157 


in India, the water of which has the magic 
power of curing blindness. I promise that within 
twenty-four hours you shall have some of the 
magic liquid ; so you can go back to your home 
and wait there quietly, while I bring it to you.” 

Sure enough, within a day, Carlos heard a 
loud neigh outside the door of his hut, and, on 
running out, there he saw the enchanted horse, 
standing with a jar of water in his mouth. 

“You are the best friend I have in the world,” 
said Carlos, stroking the horse’s soft neck. 
“Some day I will try to repay you for your 
kindness to me.” 

Then he took the jar of water, and lost no 
time in running to the palace with his precious 
burden. 

As he ran he cried, “ I can cure blindness ! I 
can give sight to the blind!” 

When the king’s servants heard him, they 
ran out of the palace, and almost carried him to 
the room in which the sick king was lying. 

“Sire,” they all cried out together, “here is a 
man who claims to be able to cure blindness.” 

“ Let him try, then,” said the king in a weary 
158 



J 59 



voice. “ I have no hope that he will succeed, 
but he can do no worse than all the others.” 

So a clean white cloth was brought, and 
Carlos poured on it some of the magic water. 
Then he passed the damp cloth gently over the 
blind man’s eyes, and — lo, his sight at once 
returned to him! 

For a moment the king sat silent, staring 
straight in front of him, as if amazed. Then he 
gave a great cry, “I can see! I can see!” and 
burst into tears of joy. 

When he had recovered, he took Carlos by 
the hands and said to him, “Ask of me what 
you like. Everything I have shall be yours.” 

Carlos then told his story from beginning to 
end. He told how he had freed the princesses, 
how he had been tricked by his brothers, and 
how he had been helped by the magic horse. 

The king was very angry when he heard how 
the two brothers had deceived him, and he drove 
them out of the city with their wives. 

Soon afterward, Carlos married the youngest 
princess, and was made heir to the throne. 


160 


THE TINDER BOX. 


One, two ! One, two ! With his sword at his 
side and his knapsack on his back, a soldier, on 
his way home from the wars, came marching 
along the road. 

An ugly old witch met him and said, “Good 
evening, Mr. Soldier! What a fine sword you 
have, and such a big knapsack, too! You shall 
have all the money you want.” 

“Thank you very kindly,” said the soldier. 

“Do you see that big tree?” asked the witch. 
“Climb up to the top, and you will see it is 
hollow. You can let yourself down inside the 
tree. At the bottom you will find a hole 
through which you can get under the tree.” 

“What am I to do down under the tree?” 
asked the soldier. 

“Get money,” answered the witch. “When 
you get down to the bottom of the tree, you will 
find a wide passage lighted with a hundred blaz- 
ing lamps. You will see three doors that you 
can open. In the first room you will see a big 
box in the middle of the floor. A dog is sitting 
161 




1 62 










on the top of the box, and he has eyes as big as 
saucers. But do not be afraid. I will give you 
my apron, which you can spread out on the 
floor ; then quickly take hold of the dog and put 
him on my apron, open the box, and take out as 
much money as you please. This money is 
copper, but if silver pleases you better, go into 
the second room. Here you will find a dog 
with eyes as big as millstones, but you can put 
him on my apron and then take all the silver 
you like. If you prefer gold, you must go into 
the third room. The dog sitting on the box in 
this room has eyes as big as the Round Tower, 
but he won’t hurt you if you put him on my 
apron. Then you can take as much gold out of 
the box as you can carry.” 

“That is fine!” said the soldier. “But how 
much do you want for yourself?” 

“Not a bit! I don’t want a piece of the 
money. You may have it all. I only want you 
to bring me an old tinder box that my mother 
forgot the last time she was down there.” 

“All right,” said the soldier. “Then tie the 
rope around my waist and let me down.” 

163 


“Don’t forget to take my apron,” said the 
witch. 

Then the soldier climbed up the tree, and the 
witch let him down into the hollow trunk. He 
soon found himself in the wide passage where 
the lamps were blazing. 

He opened the first door. Ugh! There sat 
the dog with eyes as big as saucers, staring 
right at him. “You ’re a pretty fellow!” said 
the soldier, as he took him up and put him on 
the witch’s apron. Then he opened the box and 
took out just as many pennies as he could cram 
into his pockets. He shut the box, and put the 
dog back again on the top. 

Now he went into the second room. Ugh! 
Ugh ! There sat the dog with eyes as big as 
millstones. “You should n't stare so hard,” said 
the soldier. “You might get a pain in your 
eyes.” Then he put this dog down on the 
witch’s apron and opened the box. When he 
saw that it was full of silver, he threw away all 
his pennies and crammed his pockets and his 
knapsack full of silver. 

Then he went into the third room. Ugh! Ugh! 
i 6 a 


Ugh! There sat the dog with eyes as big as the 
Round Tower, and they rolled round and round 
like wheels. But the soldier was not afraid. 
He lifted the dog down on to the witch’s apron 
and opened the box. “Mercy on us!” cried he, 
as he saw all the gold. Quickly he threw 
away all the silver he had in his pocket and 
knapsack. Then he crammed all his pockets 
and his knapsack and his cap and his boots with 
so much gold that he could hardly carry it. He 
put the dog back on the box, shut the door of 
the room, and shouted through the hollow tree, 
“Pull me up, you old witch! Pull me up!” 

“Have you the tinder box?” shouted back 
the old witch. 

“Dear me! I forgot that,” answered the sol- 
dier; so he went back and got the tinder box 
for her. 

Then the old witch hauled him up with the 
rope, and soon he stood again on the dusty road, 
but this time with his pockets, knapsack, cap, 
and boots full of shining yellow gold. 

“What do you want this old tinder box for?” 
asked the soldier. 

165 


"That ’s none of your business,” answered 
the old witch. "You have your gold; give me 
my tinder box.” 

"Not so fast!” cried the soldier. "If you 
don’t tell me what you want it for, I ’ll cut your 
head off.” 

"Well, I won’t tell you,” answered the old 
witch, angrily. 

Then the soldier drew his sword and cut her 
head off. He tied all his money up in her apron, 
slung it over his shoulder, put the tinder box in 
his pocket, and marched on again. 

When he reached the next town he went to 
the finest hotel and ordered the best of every- 
thing. The next day he bought new clothes and 
dressed like a fine gentleman. He spent money 
freely, and the people liked him. When they 
told him about their king and the lovely daugh- 
ter he had, the soldier asked, "Where can I see 
this lovely princess?” 

"You can’t see her at all,” they answered, 
"because she lives in a great copper castle, pro- 
tected by walls and towers. It has been said 
that she will marry a common soldier. ? The 
1 66 



king will not allow this, so he keeps her hidden 
away.” 

This set the soldier thinking, but he could 
think of no way of getting sight of the princess. 

As he kept on spending money freely, he 
found at last that he had only twopence left. So 
he had to leave the hotel and move into a small 
garret under the roof of a dingy house. Here 
he had to take care of himself, and no friends 
167 


came to see him. One dark evening he had 
not even money enough to buy a candle. He 
thought of the old tinder box and got it out. 
In the tinder box he found a bit of candle, a 
flint, and a steel. He struck the flint with the 
steel, and as the sparks flew up, his door sud- 
denly burst open, and there before him stood 
the dog with eyes as big as saucers. 

The dog asked, “What does my lord com- 
mand? ” 

“Goodness gracious!” exclaimed the soldier. 
“This is a wonderful tinder box.” 

Then he said to the dog, “Get me some 
money, quick ! ” 

Away went the dog, but in the twinkling of 
an eyelash he came back with a big bag full of 
pennies in his mouth, and then disappeared. 

It did not take long for the soldier to find out 
the secret of using the tinder box. If he struck 
once, the copper dog came; if he struck twice, 
the silver dog came ; if he struck thrice, the gold 
dog came. 

Now he had plenty of money again. He 
moved out of the dark garret back to the fine 
1 68 


hotel once more. He bought plenty of elegant 
clothes, and all his friends came to see him as 
before. 

But this did not satisfy the soldier. “ How 
can I manage to see the princess?” he asked 
himself more than once. He could not answer 
his own question until one night he thought of 
trying his tinder box. He struck the flint once, 
and instantly the dog with the saucer eyes came. 

“ Even if it is midnight,” said the soldier, “ I 
want to see the princess.” 

Before he had time to wink, the dog was 
gone, and soon returned with the princess, fast 
asleep, on his back. She looked so lovely that 
the soldier bent down and kissed her. He could 
not help it. Then the dog took the princess 
back to her castle. 

The next morning, at the breakfast table, the 
princess told the king and the queen that she 
had had such a wonderful dream. She said she 
had taken a ride on a dog’s back, and that a 
soldier had kissed her. 

After this a nurse had to sit by the bed of the 
princess at night to watch and see if it was only 
169 



a dream, or if something strange really had 
happened. 

The very next night the dog came again. 
He took up the princess and ran off with her as 
fast as he could, but the nurse ran after them 
and saw them go into a big house. 

“Aha!” she said, “Now I know where the 
place is.” Then she made a big cross on the 
gate with chalk and went home to wait. 

Very soon after she got there, the dog came 
170 


back, too, with the princess. But he had seen 
that there was a white cross on the gate, so he 
took a piece of chalk and very cleverly made 
crosses on all the gates in the town. 

Early the next morning the nurse told the 
king and the queen what she had seen and what 
she had done. So they all went to see where 
the princess had been. 

“There is the house,” said the king when he 
saw the first cross. 

“No; it is over there,” said the queen, who 
saw another cross. 

“But there are crosses everywhere!” cried 
the nurse. Then they saw that it would be of 
no use to look any further. 

As soon as they got home, the queen took 
her scissors and cut up a large piece of silk into 
smaller pieces. These she made into a pretty 
little bag, in which she put buckwheat. She 
then tied this bag on the back of the princess, 
and cut a little hole in the bottom of the bag so 
that the buckwheat grains should drop out along 
the way the princess went. 

That night the dog came again and carried the 

171 


sleeping princess to the soldier. He never no- 
ticed how the buckwheat dropped out of the 
pretty little bag along the road. 

In the morning the king easily found the place. 
The soldier was seized and put into a dark dun- 
geon. “To-morrow they will hang you,” said 
the jailer, as he locked the door. 

“Oh,” mourned the soldier to himself, “if I 
only had not left my tinder box behind!” 

After a weary night, the soldier woke early. 
Through the bars of his prison window he could 
see the people on their way to the gallows on 
which he was to be hanged. Everybody was 
in a hurry. A shoemaker’s boy was in such a 
hurry that he lost one of his slippers right under 
the soldier’s window. 

The soldier cried out, “I say, you boy! 
Don’t be in such a hurry. Nothing can be done 
till I get there. But if you run to my house 
and fetch me my tinder box, I will give you a 
penny. You must be quick.” 

The boy was only too glad to earn a penny, 
so he set off for the tinder box, and soon brought 
it to the soldier, who gladly gave the lad a penny. 

172 



i73 


Outside the town, the king’s people had built 
a high scaffold with a higher gallows on it, from 
which the soldier was to hang. 

The soldier mounted the ladder, but when the 
rope was being put round his neck, he asked, 
“Won’t you please let me smoke my pipe for 
the last time?” 

“All right Smoke your pipe for the last 
time,” they said to him. 

So the soldier took out his tinder box, and 
with the steel he struck the flint once, twice, 
thrice. Behold, there were all the three dogs ! 

“Help me! Help me!” cried the soldier. 
“They are going to hang me!” 

The dogs rushed at the people, and alarmed 
them greatly. 

“Oh, good soldier,” they shouted, “you shall 
marry the princess. Only call off the dogs!” 

The soldier did as they wished. Then the 
princess was brought out of the copper palace 
and became his wife, as had been foretold, and 
ever after they lived a happy life. 


174 


HOW CASSIM BECAME KING. 


A little orphan boy, named Cassim, lived with 
his uncle in a great city on the banks of a river 
in Persia. 

The street in which Cassim dwelt was very 
narrow, and the houses were small and mean. 
Cassim’s uncle had a large family to support, 
and had to work very hard to find enough food 
for all his children. 

One day he said to his nephew, “You are now 
old enough to earn your own living; so take 
this bag of cakes and these ten pieces of money, 
make your own way in the world, and do not 
come back here again.” 

Cassim left the house and wandered through 
the city, seeking work. He had not gone far 
when he saw some cruel boys chasing a poor 
little white mouse. They were throwing stones 
at the little creature, which, in its fright, ran to 
Cassim for shelter. 

Cassim stroked it gently, and said, “Well, 
Mousie, since you have come to me for safety, I 
will see that nobody hurts you.” 

175 



176 





The boys then came running up, and one of 
them cried, “ That mouse belongs to me. Give 
it to me, for I want to kill it.” 

“Not if I can help it,” said Cassim. “Why 
do you wish to harm such a pretty little animal ? 
I will give you five pieces of money if you will 
give it to me.” 

With that the boy was well content. He took 
the money and went off with his friends. 

The white mouse was trembling with fright, 
but it thanked its new master prettily, and said, 
“I am only a poor, weak creature, but some 
day, perhaps, I shall be able to repay you for 
the service you have done me.” 

Cassim put the mouse carefully in his pocket, 
and, giving it one of his cakes to eat, went on 
his way. 

Before long, he met a party of boys, dragging 
along a little white dog, and he asked them, 
“What are you going to do with this poor little 
creature? ” 

“We are going to drown it in the river,” 
replied the boys. 

“That is very cruel,” said Cassim. “See, 
177 


here are five pieces of money; take them, and 
give the dog to me.” 

The boys were only too pleased to do so, and 
Cassim went off with the animal, which frisked 
about him, showing its joy in every way that it 
could. 

“Master,” it said, “good deeds never go 
without reward. A day will come when I shall 
be able to help you, as you have helped me.” 

Cassim tried everywhere to find work, but the 
city was so crowded with people, that there was 
not enough work to go round. So the boy 
would soon have starved, but for the morsels of 
food which kind people gave to him, and which 
he always shared with his pets. 

One day, as he was sitting near the gates of 
the city, watching some soldiers march through 
in their glittering armor, he heard the sound of 
bells. Soon a long line of camels appeared, 
laden with goods of all kinds. He found out 
from one of the people who stood by, that this 
caravan belonged to some merchants, who were 
traveling to a distant city. 

Cassim ran up to the chief of the merchants, 
i 7 8 


and asked if he might go with the caravan. 
“Nobody seems to need me in this city,” he 
said, “but there are hundreds of ways in which 
a boy like me could be useful to you upon the 
march.” 

“Very well,” said the merchant, rather 
roughly; “you may come if you like. I dare 
say we can make use of you.” 

So Cassim took a seat on one of the camels, 
and set off on his travels, with his mouse in his 
pocket and his little dog under his arm. In 
time the caravan crossed a great river, and en- 
tered a broad desert, where nothing was to be 
seen but yellow sand. 

Cassim soon began to wish that he had never 
left his native town, for the chief of the mer- 
chants was a bad man who treated him cruelly. 
He made the boy do all kinds of rough work, 
and then beat him, even when the work was 
done quite well. 

So one day, when the camels reached a well 
of water, Cassim hid himself with his two pets 
among some thick bushes, and the caravan 
went on its way without them. 

179 



When the merchants were quite out of sight, 
the boy crept from his hiding-place; and, as he 
had been many hours without food, he looked 
about for any scraps that the men might have 
left behind. But he could find nothing at all. 

“O Doggie dear!” he said, “I fear I have 
brought you here to die of hunger, for there is 
not a morsel of food to be found.” 

“Do not worry about me, master,” said the 
dog; “ I shall find something good for all of us. 
Never fear.” 

And the mouse cried out in his little piping 
voice, “Do not despair, master. We have at 
180 


least plenty of water; let us go and quench our 
thirst.” 

So they all went off to the well to take a 
drink of water; and there, by the side of the 
well, they saw a silver fish shining on the sand. 

It was gasping for breath and almost dead, 
for it had jumped from the water to catch a fly, 
and had been unable to reach its home again. 

“Poor little fish!” cried Cassim, as he picked 
it up and dropped it back into the water. 

The fish lay quite still for a moment near the 
surface, and then darted down into the depths of 
the well. Soon, however, it returned with a 
glittering ring in its mouth, and this it laid on 
the' sand at the edge of the well, close to 
Cassim’s feet. 

“You have saved my life,” said the fish, “and 
I am deeply grateful to you. As a reward, I 
have brought you this ring from the bottom of 
my well. Take good care of it, for it has magic 
powers. You have only to rub it, think of any- 
thing you want, and you will see it before you.” 

So saying, the fish darted back again into the 
blue depths, without waiting for a word of thanks. 
181 


“Oh! This is really splendid!” cried the dog, 
frisking about in delight. “We shall all have a 
good dinner now, and without the trouble of 
cooking it.” 

“Yes, yes!” piped the mouse. “Rub the 
ring quickly, master, and see if it can do for you 
all that the fish promised.” 

Cassim rubbed the ring, wishing at the same 
time for something to eat. At once a white 
tablecloth appeared, on which there were twelve 
silver plates, six covered with rich meats, and six 
with delicious fruits. 

What a feast the boy and his two friends had ! 

“Now, master,” said the dog, “you must 
make good use of your magic ring. Rub it 
again, and this time wish for something grand.” 

“Ah, you must be more patient,” said Cassim, 
laughing. “We must not give this ring too 
much work to do all at once. Still, just to please 
you, I will wish once more; but my wish is 
such a great one, that I do not think the ring 
will be able to grant it.” 

“Never mind! Never mind!” squeaked the 
mouse. “Let us hear your wish.” 

182 


“Well,” said Cassini, “I wish to find, in the 
morning, in this desert place, a .city with temples, 
lakes, and gardens. In the middle of the city, I 
want a shining palace with plenty of horses, 
chariots, fine food, and all good things. I wish 
this well to become a broad river, flowing 
through the land and making it fruitful; and 
lastly, I wish the city to be filled with people, 
all ready to greet me as their king.” 

“This is, indeed, a great wish,” said the dog. 
“ I think that the ring will be kept very busy 
to-night, if it is to do all that you ask before 
morning.” 

“Yes,” said Cassim, smiling; “and if it is half 
as weary as I am, I fear that very little of its 
work will be finished by daybreak.” Then, 
tired out, he lay down to sleep, with his friends 
by his side. 

When the boy opened his eyes in the morn- 
ing, he thought that he was dreaming, for he 
found himself lying on a silken couch, around 
which stood forty richly dressed servants. 

“Where in the world ami?” he cried in 

183 * 


surprise. 


“Where should you be but in your palace, O 
king! ” replied the servants. 

Then Cassim remembered his wish, and knew 
that the magic ring had not failed in its duty. 
While he slept, a palace and a city had sprung 
up around him, with temples, gardens, and all 
other things which go to form a great town. A 
broad stream flowed over the land; and, in one 
night, an empty desert had been changed into a 
country full of people. 

The boy sent for a chariot, and drove out into 
the city. Around him rode five hundred guards, 
all splendidly dressed, and with drawn swords. 
Wherever he went, the people crowded to see 
him, waving their hands and shouting, “ Long live 
our king!” 

Cassim lived happily in his fine palace, and 
his pets shared in the good fortune which had 
come to their master. The dog had a pretty 
little four-roomed heuse in the gardens, while 
the mouse had two tiny rooms inside the palace. 
They never knew what it was to be hungry, and 
they frisked and played all day long to their 
hearts’ content. 


184 


Not quite a year had passed by when, one 
day, the very merchant who had treated Cassim 
so badly found this busy city where once there 
had been nothing but a lonely desert. 

He went to the palace,, and asked Cassim how 
it had all happened. The boy thought that he 
had nothing now to fear from the merchant, so 
he told him of the magic ring, and how it had 
raised a palace and a city in a single night. 

“That must be indeed a wonderful ring,” said 
the merchant. “Would it be asking too much 
of you to let me see it?” 

“Not at all,” replied Cassim. “Here it is 
upon my little finger.” 

The merchant bent over the ring, as if to look 
at it more closely. In a flash, he tore the ring 
from the boy’s finger, and giving it a rub, 
wished the whole city to be carried to a distant 
island in the sea. 

No sooner had he uttered this evil wish, than 
the magic city was whisked away through the 
air, leaving poor Cassim and his two pets 
behind. There they stood, looking the picture 
of misery, and there beside them was the des- 

185 


ert well, just as it had been nearly a year 
before. 

Cassim shed bitter tears at the loss of his 
beautiful city. But his faithful dog thrust his 
nose into his master’s hand and said, “Do not 
be so sad, dear master. You have lost your 
city, but you still have two little friends who 
will never forsake you.” 

“Yes, you have, indeed!” cried the mouse, 
running up the boy’s leg and perching himself 
upon his knee. “You saved our lives when we 
were going to be killed by cruel boys. Now it 
is our turn. Trust to us, and we will recover 
for you all that you have lost.” 

“Thank you, you dear little creatures,” said 
Cassim; “your kind words put new life into me, 
and I will no longer sit and weep like a baby. 
Let us set off in search of the lost city and the 
magic ring.” 

So off they went, and began their long journey 
in good spirits. They traveled on and on, 
through great deserts, and over high mountains ; 
but they could find nowhere a trace of the city 
for which they were seeking. 

1 86 


I 



T^7 


After walking for about three months, they 
came to a wood near the seashore. As they 
were sitting at the foot of a tree, making a meal 
of some morsels of food which had been given 
them, they heard a bird talking to a friend 
among the leaves. 

“To-day,” said the bird, “ I flew over a palace 
in the sea, so beautiful that I could not help 
staying to admire it.” 

“Did you, indeed?” said his friend. “And 
where was this palace?” 

“ If you look carefully over the waves,” replied 
the first bird, “you can just see it.” 

Cassim was delighted when he heard this, for 
he knew that the palace could be no other than 
that which had been stolen from him. But how 
was he to reach it? He had no boat, and he 
could not swim. 

“This is our chance to help you,” said his 
dog. “I can swim, and Mousie here is very 
nimble. He shall sit on my head, and I will 
carry him to that great city in the middle of the 
sea. If we cannot bring you back your magic 
ring, then we are not worth calling your friends.” 

1 88 


In a moment, Doggie was splashing his way out 
to sea, with Mousie sitting calmly upon his head. 

Night was falling before they reached the city 
and made their way to the palace. No one took 
any notice of them, and they easily found their 
way to the door of the room in which the mer- 
chant was sleeping. 

The door was bolted and barred, but this was 
no hindrance to the little mouse, who began to 
gnaw at the wood with such strength, that, in 
quite a short time, he had made a hole in it 
large enough for him to crawl through. He 
popped into the room at once, and found the 
thief fast asleep in his bed. 

It was not long before he saw the magic ring, 
but he could not touch it, for a very good 
reason. It was guarded by two fierce cats 
which were chained to it, and which would have 
made a meal of poor little Mousie, if they could 
only have reached him. 

“It is quite clear that I cannot take the ring,” 
said the little animal. “ I think I had better run 
away and see what Doggie thinks about the 
matter.” 


189 


So back he went through the hole, and told 
his friend what he had seen. 

“I will tell you what you must do,” said the 
dog. “Set to work to gnaw the merchant’s 
hair; then he will have the cats chained to his 
pillow in order to keep you away.” 

The mouse went back, and did just as he had 
been told. The sleeper was so much annoyed 
at the tugs at his hair, that he had the two cats 
chained to his pillow. 

No sooner had he fallen asleep again, than 
the mouse seized the magic ring, and ran off 
with it as fast as he could. 

The two friends quickly made their way to 
the seashore, and swam across the water to the 
place where Cassim was waiting for them. How 
pleased the boy was to have his ring again ! 
He rubbed it without delay, and wished the city 
back in its old place. 

In less time than it takes me to tell you, the 
city returned to where it had stood before. 

The people were pleased to see their king 
again, and Cassim ruled over them in the great- 
est happiness for the rest of his days. 

190 


THE FLYING TRUNK. 


There was once a merchant who was very 
rich. His son inherited his wealth, and lived a 
merry life with it. 

In this manner he soon lost all his money. 

At last he had nothing left but a pair of slip- 
pers, an old dressing gown, and four shillings. 

Now all his companions deserted him. They 
would not walk with him in the streets ; but one 
of them, who was very good-natured, sent him 
an old trunk with this message, “Pack up!” 

“Yes,” he said, “it is all very well to say, 
‘Pack up/ but I have nothing left to pack.” 
Therefore he seated himself in the trunk. 

It was a very wonderful trunk; no sooner did 
any one press on the lock than the trunk began to 
fly. He shut the lid and pressed the- lock, when 
away flew the trunk up the chimney, with the 
merchant’s son in it, right up into the clouds. 
Whenever the bottom of the trunk creaked, he 
was in a great fright ; for if the trunk had broken 
to pieces, he would have had a bad fall. 

However, he got safely to the land of Turkey. 

I 9 I 


He hid the trunk in a wood under some dry 
leaves, and then went into a town near by. This 
he could do very well, for the Turks always go 
about dressed in gowns and slippers, as he was 
himself. 

He happened to meet a nurse with a little 
child. “ I say,” cried he, “ what castle is that 
near the town, with the windows placed so 
high?” 

“The king’s daughter lives there,” she re- 
plied. "It has been prophesied that she will be 
very unhappy about a lover, therefore no one is 
allowed to visit her, unless the king and the 
queen are present.” 

“Thank you,” said the merchant’s son. So 
he went back to the wood, seated himself in his 
trunk, flew up to the roof of the castle, and crept 
through the window into the room where the 
princess lay on the sofa, asleep. She awoke, 
and was very much frightened ; but he told her 
he was a Turkish angel who had come down 
through the air to see her. This pleased her 
very much. He sat down by her side and 
talked to her. He told her delightful stories; 

192 



and when he asked her if she would marry him, 
she consented immediately. 

“But you must come on Saturday,” she said; 
193 


‘‘for then the king and the queen will take tea 
with me. They will be very proud when they 
find that I am going to marry a Turkish angel. 
You must think of some very pretty stories to 
tell them, for my parents like to hear stories. 
My mother prefers one that is deep and moral ; 
but my father likes something funny, to make 
him laugh.” 

“Very well,” he replied; “I shall bring you 
no other marriage portion than a story,” and so 
they parted. But the princess gave him a sword 
studded with gold coins, and these he could use. 

Then he flew away to the town and bought a 
new dressing gown. Afterward he returned to 
the wood, where he composed a story, so as to 
be ready by Saturday. When he went to see 
the princess on Saturday, the king and the queen 
and the whole court were at tea with her. He 
was received with great politeness. 

“Will you tell us a story,” asked the queen — 
“one that is instructive and full of learning?” 

“Yes, but with something in it to laugh at,” 
said the king. 

“Certainly,” he replied. “There was once a 

194 


bundle of matches proud of their high descent. 
The tree from which they had been cut was a 
large, old pine-tree in a great forest. The 
matches now lay between a tinder box and an 
old iron saucepan, and were talking about their 
youthful days. ‘ Ah ! Then we grew on green 
boughs, and were as green as they. Every 
morning and evening we were fed with diamond 
drops of dew. Whenever the sun shone, we 
felt his warm rays, and the little birds would 
relate stories to us as they sang. We knew that 
we were rich, for the other trees wore their 
green dresses only in summer, but our family 
were in green summer and winter. The wood- 
cutter came, and all of us fell under his ax. 
The head of the house is now a mainmast 
in a very fine ship, and can sail round the world 
when he will. Other trees were taken to different 
places, but our tree was split up, and all we have 
to do now is to kindle a light for common people 
in a kitchen.’ 

‘My life has been very different,’ said the 
iron pot, which stood by the matches. ‘From 
my first entrance into the world I have been 
l 95 


used to cooking and scouring. I am the first in 
this house, when anything solid or useful is 
required. My only pleasure is to be made clean 
and shining after dinner, and to sit in my place 
and have a little sensible talk with my neighbors. 
All of us, excepting the water bucket, which is 
sometimes taken into the courtyard, live here 
together within these four walls. We get our 
news from the market basket, but he sometimes 
tells us very unpleasant things about people. 
One day an old pot was so alarmed, that he fell 
down and was broken in pieces.’ * 

‘You are talking too much,’ said the tinder 
box; and the steel struck against the flint till 
some sparks flew out, crying, ‘We want a merry 
evening. Don’t we?’ 

‘Yes, of course,’ said the matches. ‘Let us 
talk about those who are the highest born.’ 

‘No, I don’t like to be always talking of 
what we are,’ remarked the saucepan. , ‘ Let us 
think of some other amusement. I will begin. 
We will tell something that has happened to 
ourselves ; that will be very easy, and interesting 
as well. On the Baltic Sea, near the Danish shore — ’ 
196 


‘ What a pretty beginning! ’ said the plates. 
‘ We shall all like that story, I am sure.’ 

‘Yes? Well, in my youth I lived in a quiet 
family, where the furniture was polished, the 
floors were scoured, and clean curtains put up 
every fortnight.’ 

‘What an interesting way you have of re- 
lating a story ! ’ said the carpet broom. ‘ It is 
easy to see that you have been a great deal in 
society, something so pure runs through what 
you say.’ 

‘That is quite true,’ said the water bucket; 
and he made a spring with joy, and splashed 
some water on the floor. 

Then the saucepan went on with his story, 
and the end was as good as the beginning. 

The plates rattled with pleasure, and the carpet 
broom brought some green parsley out of the 
dust hole and crowned the saucepan. He knew 
it would vex the others; but he thought, ‘If I 
crown him to-day, he will crown me to-mor- 
row.’ 

‘Now let us have a dance,’ said the fire 
tongs ; and then how they danced and stuck up 
197 


one leg in the air! The chair cushion in the 
corner burst with laughter when she saw it. 

‘Shall I be crowned now?’ asked the fire 
tongs; so the broom found another wreath for 
the tongs. 

‘They are only common people, after all/ 
thought the matches. 

The tea urn was now asked to sing; but she 
said she had a cold, and could not sing without 
boiling heat. They all thought she did not wish 
to sing except in the parlor, with the grand people. 

In the window sat an old quill pen, with 
which the maid generally wrote. There was 
nothing remarkable about the pen, except that it 
had been dipped too deeply in the ink; but it 
was proud of that. 

‘If the tea urn won’t sing/ said the pen, 

‘ she can leave it alone. There is a nightingale 
in a cage who can sing.’ 

‘I think it highly improper/ said the tea 
kettle, who was kitchen singer and half brother 
to the tea urn, ‘that a rich foreign bird should 
be listened to here. Is it patriotic? Let the 
market basket decide what is right.’ 

198 


‘I certainly am vexed,’ said the basket. 
‘Are we spending the evening properly? Would 
it not be more sensible to put the house in 
order? If each were in his own place, I would 
lead a game. That would be quite another 
thing.’ 

‘Let us act a play,’ said they all. At the 
same moment the door opened, and the maid 
came in. Then not one stirred. They all re- 
mained quite still; yet, at the same time, there 
was not a single pot among them who had not 
a high opinion of himself, and of what he could 
do if he chose. 

‘Yes, if we had chosen,’ they each thought, 
‘we might have spent a very pleasant evening.’ 

The maid took the matches and lighted 
them; dear me, how they sputtered and blazed 
up ! 

‘Now then,’ they thought, ‘every one will see 
that we are the first. How we shine! What a 
light we give!’ Even while they spoke, their 
light went out.” 

That was the end of the story. 

“What a capital story!” said the queen. “I 

1 99 


feel as if I were really in the kitchen, and could 
see the matches. Yes, you shall marry our 
daughter.” 

“Certainly,” said the king, “you shall have 
our daughter.” 

The wedding day was fixed, and, on the 
evening before, the whole city was illuminated. 
Cakes and sweetmeats were thrown among the 
people. The street boys stood on tiptoe and 
shouted, “Hurrah!” and whistled between their 
fingers. Altogether it was a very splendid affair. 

“I will give them another treat,” said the 
merchant’s son. So he went and bought rockets 
and crackers, and all sorts of fireworks. These 
he packed in his trunk, and flew up with them 
into the air. What a whizzing and popping 
they made as they went off! When the Turks 
saw the sight they jumped up so high that their 
slippers flew about their ears. After this it was 
easy to believe that the princess was really going 
to marry a Turkish angel. 

As soon as the merchant’s son had come 
down into the wood after his display of fireworks, 
he thought, “ I will go back into the town now, 


200 


and hear what they think of the entertainment.” 
It was very natural that he should wish to know. 
And what strange things people did say, to be 


sure! Every one whom he questioned had a 
different tale to tell, though they all thought it 
very beautiful. 

“I saw the Turkish angel myself,” said one. 
“He had eyes like glittering stars, and a head 
like foaming water.” 

“He flew in a mantle of fire,” said another; 
“and lovely little cherubs peeped out from the 
folds.” 

He heard many more fine things about him- 
self, and that the next day he was to be married. 
After this he went back to the forest to rest him- 
self in his trunk. It had disappeared! A spark 
from the fireworks which remained had set it on 
fire. It was burned to ashes! So the mer- 
chant’s son could not fly any more, nor go to 
meet his bride. She stood all day on the roof, 
waiting for him. Most likely, she is waiting 
there still, while he wanders through the world, 
telling fairy tales. 


202 


THE SNOW MAN. 


“It is so delightfully cold,” said the snow 
man, “ that it makes my whole body crackle. 
This is just the kind of wind to blow life into 
one. How that great red thing up there is star- 
ing at me! It shall not make me wink.” 

He meant the sun, which was just setting. 

The snow man had two triangular pieces of 
tile in his head, instead of eyes. His mouth was 
made of an old broken rake, and in this way 
was furnished with teeth. 

The sun went down. The full moon rose, 
large, round, and clear, shining in the deep blue. 

“ There it comes again, from the other side,” 
said the snow man, who supposed the sun was 
showing himself once more. “Ah, I have cured 
him of staring, though. Now he may hang up 
there, and shine, that I may see myself. If I 
only knew how to manage to move away from 
this place. I should so like to move ! If I could, 
I would slide along yonder on the ice, as I have 
seen the boys do; but I don’t understand how. 
I don’t even know how to run.” 


203 


“Away! Away!” barked the old yard dog. 
He was quite hoarse, and could not pronounce, 
“ Bow-wow,” properly. He had once been an 
indoor dog, and lain by the fire, and he had 
been hoarse ever since. “The sun will make 
you run some day. I saw him make a snow 
man run last winter, and the winter before. 
Away! Away! They all have to go.” 

“I don’t understand you, comrade,” said the 
snow man. “Is that thing up yonder to teach 
me to run ? I saw it running itself, a little while 
ago, and now it has come creeping up from the 
other side.” 

“You know nothing at all,” replied the yard 
dog. “What you see yonder is the moon, and 
the one before it was the sun. It will come 
again to-morrow, and most likely teach you to 
run down into the ditch by the well ; for I think 
the weather is going to change. I can feel such 
pricks and stabs in my left leg, that I am sure 
there is going to be a change.” 

“I don’t understand him,” said the snow man 
to himself; “but I have a feeling that he is talk- 
ing of something very disagreeable. I can feel, 
204 


too, that the ont who stared so hard just now, 
and whom he ca Is the sun, is not my friend.” 

“Away! Away!” barked the yard dog, and 
then he turned round three times, and crept into 
his kennel to sleep. 

There really was a change in the weather. 
Toward morning, a thick fog covered the whole 
country round. A keen wind arose, so that the 
cold seemed to freeze one’s bones. When the 
sun rose, the sight was splendid. Trees and 
bushes were covered with hoarfrost, and looked 
like a forest of white coral. Every twig glistened 
with frozen dewdrops. Where the sun shone, 
everything glittered and sparkled, as if diamond 
dust had been strewn about. 

“ This is really beautiful,” said a young girl 
who had come into the garden with a friend. 
They both stood still, near the snow man, and 
enjoyed the glittering scene. “ Summer cannot 
show a more beautiful sight,” she exclaimed, 
while her eyes sparkled. 

“And we can’t have such a fellow as this in 
the summer time,” replied the young man, point- 
ing to the snow man. “He is capital.” 

205 



206 




The girl laughed, and she nodded at the 
snow man. Then they tripped away over the 
snow, making it creak and crackle beneath their 
feet. 

“Who are they?” asked the snow man of the 
yard dog. “Do you know them?” 

“Of course I know them,” replied the yard 
dog. “She has stroked my back many times, 
and he has given me a bone of meat. I never 
bite those two.” 

“But what are they?” asked the snow man. 

“ They are lovers,” he replied. “ They will 
go and live in the same kennel by and by, and 
gnaw at the same bone. Away! Away!” 

“ Are they the same kind of beings as you 
and I ?” asked the snow man. 

“Well, they belong to the same master,” re- 
plied the yard dog. “Certainly people who 
were only born yesterday know very little. I 
can see that in you. I have age and experience. 
I know everything, and I know there was once 
a time when I did not lie out here in the cold, 
fastened to a chain. Away! Away!” 

“Tell me,” said the snow man. “Do tell me 
207 


— only you must not clank your chains so; for 
it jars all through me when you do that.” 

“Away! Away!” barked the yard dog. “I’ll 
tell you. I was a pretty little fellow once. 
Then I used to lie in a velvet-covered chair, up 
at the master’s house, and sit in the mistress’s 
lap. They used to kiss my nose, and wipe my 
paws with an embroidered handkerchief, and I 
was called 'Ami,’ 'Dear Ami,’ ‘Sweet Ami.’ But 
after a while I grew too big for them, and they 
sent me away to the housekeeper’s room; so I 
came to live on the lower story. It was cer- 
tainly a smaller room than those upstairs ; but I 
was more comfortable ; for I was not being con- 
tinually taken hold of and pulled about by the 
children, as I had been. I received quite as 
good food, or even better. I had my own 
cushion, and there was a stove — the finest thing 
in the world at this season of the year. I used 
to go under the stove and lie down comfortably. 
Ah, I still dream of that stove! Away! Away!” 

“Does a stove look beautiful?” asked the 
snow man. “Is it at all like me?” 

“ It is just the reverse of you,” said the dog. 
208 


“It *s as black as a crow, and has a long neck 
and a brass knob. It eats firewood, so that fire 
spurts out of its mouth. We should keep on 
one side, or under it, to be comfortable. You 
can see it through the window from where you 
stand.” 

Then the snow man looked, and saw a bright 
polished thing with a brazen knob, and fire 
gleaming from the lower part of it. 

“And why did you leave?” asked the snow 
man. “ How could you give up such a com- 
fortable place?” 

“I had to,” replied the yard dog. “They 
turned me out of doors, and chained me up here. 
I had bitten the youngest of my masters sons 
in the leg, because he kicked away the bone I 
was gnawing. ‘Bone for bone,’ I thought; but 
they were angry. Since that time I have been 
fastened to a chain, out in the cold. Don’t you 
hear how hoarse I am? Away! Away! I 
can’t talk like other dogs any more. Away! 
Away ! That is the end of it all.” 

But the snow man was no longer listening. 
He was looking into the housekeeper’s room on 
209 


the lower story, where the stove stood on its 
four iron legs, looking about the same size as 
the snow man himself. “What a strange crack- 
ling I feel within me!” he said. “Shall I ever 
get in there? I must go in, even if I have to 
break the window.” 

“You must never go in there,” said the yard 
dog; “for if you do, you ’ll melt away.” 

“I might as well,” said the snow man, “for 
I think I am breaking up as it is.” 

During the whole day the snow man stood 
looking in through the window. In the twilight 
hour the room became still more inviting. When 
the door of the stove was opened, the flames 
darted out of its mouth. The light fell with a 
ruddy gleam directly on the face and the breast 
of the snow man. “I can endure it no longer,” 
said he. “How beautiful it looks when it 
stretches out its tongue!” 

The night was long, but it did not appear so 
to the snow man, who stood there enjoying his 
thoughts and crackling with the cold. In the 
morning the window panes of the housekeeper’s 
room were covered with ice. There were most 


210 


beautiful ice flowers, but they hid the stove. 
The snow crackled and the wind whistled around 
the snow man. It was just the kind of frosty 
weather a snow man might thoroughly enjoy. 
But he did not enjoy it. How, indeed, could he 
enjoy anything? 

“That is a terrible disease for a snow man,” 
said the yard dog. “ I have suffered from it 
myself, but I got over it. Away! Away!” he 
barked. “The weather is going to change.” 

And the weather did change; it began to 
thaw. As the warmth increased, the snow man 
decreased. He said nothing, and made no com- 
plaint. One morning he broke, and sank down 
altogether; and, behold, where he had stood, 
something like a broomstick remained sticking 
up in the ground ! It was the pole round which 
the boys had built him up. 

“Ah, now I understand why he had such a 
great longing for the stove,” said the yard dog. 
“Why, there ’s the shovel that is used for clean- 
ing out the stove, fastened to the pole!” 


21 1 



212 



FIVE WONDERFUL EGGS. 

Once upon a time there lived in France a king 
who had a lovely little daughter named Fiorina. 
Her name meant “the Little Flower,” and in- 
deed she was just as fresh and beautiful as any 
flower that blooms. 

Her father was very fond of her, but she had 
a stepmother who did not care for her at all. 
This stepmother also had a daughter of the same 
age as Fiorina. She was called Troutina, be- 
cause her face was spotted like the back of a 
trout. 

Troutina was as ugly and bad-tempered as 
Fiorina was lovely and gentle, and the difference 
between the two made the queen so jealous, that 
she and her daughter took every chance they 
could to make Fiorina unhappy, and to speak ill 
of her to her father. 

The girl bore all their ill-treatment without a 
murmur. She dared not tell her father about it, 
for he was ruled entirely by his wife, and would 
have given no heed to anything she might say. 

One day, when the two princesses were about 
213 


eighteen years of age, a prince from a distant 
country came riding up to the palace. He was 
called Prince Charming, and he was just as 
charming as his name. 

When the queen heard of his arrival, she 
made Fiorina put on a shabby old frock; but 
she gave Troutina a grand silk dress, and decked 
her out with pearls and diamonds. 

Yet the prince was so much struck by Fio- 
rina’s beauty, that he did not notice her ragged 
dress, but fell in love with her at once. As for 
Troutina, though she was blazing with jewels, 
he would not so much as look at her. 

The queen and her ugly daughter were 
furious. Off they went to the king, and begged 
of him that Fiorina might be shut up in a prison 
so long as Prince Charming was with them. 
So, the very moment that she left the prince, the 
poor girl was seized and carried off to a bare 
cell at the top of a tower. 

The prince lay awake all night, thinking of 
the beauty of the young princess; and in the 
morning he went straight to the queen, and 
asked if he could have her as his wife. 


214 


“You must not think any more about that 
bad girl,” said the queen. “But there is my 
daughter Troutina; she is more beautiful and 
more agreeable in every way, and would make 
you a splendid wife.” 

“It is quite possible that she would make me 
a good wife,” replied the prince, politely; “but 
I am sure I should make her a bad husband, 
for I love Fiorina, and her alone I will wed.” 

At these words, the queen grew very angry, 
and, stamping her. foot, she cried, “ I shall take 
good care that you do nothing of the sort, for 
you shall never see that wicked girl again. I 
have shut her up in a cell, and there she will 
remain until Troutina is married.” 

When the queen left Prince Charming, she 
went to the room of her ugly daughter, and told 
her all that had happened. 

“I have made up my mind that he shall 
marry you,” she said to Troutina; “and I will 
tell you how this can be brought about. You 
must go and see your godmother Zelia, who, as 
you know, is a powerful fairy. Tell her all I 
have said, and ask her to help you.” 

215 


Troutina did as she was told, and before long 
she returned to the palace, bringing the fairy 
with her. 

“Where is this bold young prince?” said 
Zelia. “Let me see if he still dares to refuse 
the hand of a fairy’s goddaughter.” 

Prince Charming was at once sent for, and in 
a few moments he appeared in the room. 

“Well, ladies,” said he, smiling as pleasantly 
as he could, “pray tell me which of you has 
sent for me.” 

“ It was I who sent for you,” replied the fairy; 
“for I hear that you have been rude enough to 
refuse to wed this maiden, my goddaughter 
Troutina. I command you now to marry her 
without delay.” 

“ I shall do nothing of the kind,” said the 
prince in an angry tone ; for, like most princes, 
he did not like to be ordered about. 

“You will either do as I bid you,” said the 
fairy, “or I shall take away your human form, 
and you shall fly about the world, for seven long 
years, in the shape of a bluebird.” 

“Do what you will,” replied the prince; “I 
216 


would rather die a thousand times than marry 
any one but Fiorina.” 

No sooner had he spoken than his form began 
to change. His body took the shape of a bird, 
and his arms turned into wings. His legs be- 
came thin, and claws grew upon them in place 
of feet. He gave the saddest cry you ever 
heard, and, flying off through the window, hid 
himself in a hollow tree in the palace grounds. 

When night came, the poor bluebird flew 
round and round the palace, looking in at every 
window, trying to find out where his beloved 
princess was shut up. At last he peeped into a 
tiny cell at the top of a tower, and there he saw 
her, weeping as if her heart would break. 

He tapped gently with his bill against the 
window, and presently the maiden heard the 
sound. She flew to the window and opened it. 

“Dear bird,” she said, stroking his feathers, 
“have you come to comfort me in my sorrow?” 

“Lovely princess,” he replied, “your sorrows 
will soon be at an end; weep no more.” 

“Who are you, that you can promise such a 
thing?” asked the girl. 

217 


“ I am your true lover, Prince Charming/’ 
replied the bird. “I have been changed into 
this shape by a fairy, because I would not give 
you up.” 

You may imagine Fiorina’s joy on hearing 
this, and at the same time her sorrow on learn- 
ing that the prince must keep his new form 
for seven years. They talked the whole night 
through, till day began to break, and promised 
to meet thus every night. 

How comforted the lovers were now! The 
bluebird lived all day in a hollow tree, and the 
princess never left her lonely cell; yet they 
found plenty to talk about when they met each 
night. 

Days soon passed into weeks, and weeks into 
months, but the bluebird and his princess never 
noticed how time flew, for they were so happy 
with each other. 

Meanwhile the wicked queen and her ugly 
daughter could not understand why Fiorina did 
not pine away with grief. 

“She sees no one,” said the queen, “and yet 
she remains as happy as the day is long. There 
218 


must be some good reason for it; but we shall 
find her out and punish her.” 

So, late one night, they crept up to Fiorina’s 
cell. The queen quietly unlocked the door, and 
they both rushed in, and caught the maiden and 
her bluebird chatting pleasantly with each other 
at the window. 

“Fly, dear prince! Fly!” cried Fiorina, when 
she saw that her secret had been found out. 
“You cannot assist me, and your presence may 
bring me into further trouble.” 

The bluebird knew that there was no help for 
it, so, almost overcome with sorrow, he flew 
away out of the window. 

Then the queen seized Fiorina by the arm 
and cried, “So we have found you out at last, 
you wicked girl! This bird, whose company 
you seem to enjoy so much, is no doubt an evil 
spirit, and you are nothing more nor less than a 
witch. I shall go straight to your father, and 
he shall punish you for it.” 

So saying, the queen and her daughter went 
away to tell their tale to the king. They knew 
quite well that the bluebird was Prince Charm- 
219 


in g, and that Fiorina was no witch; but they 
did not care what untruths they told, if only 
they could bring harm to the princess, whose 
beauty and goodness made them so jealous. 

Now it so happened that, when Troutina and 
her mother went off to persuade the king to 
punish Fiorina, they were not allowed to see 
him. He had been taken suddenly ill, and the 
doctors kept every one from his bedside. Dur- 
ing the night he grew worse, and before morn- 
ing he died, saying with his last breath that his 
daughter Fiorina should succeed him on the 
throne. 

When the people heard of this, they gathered 
round the palace, crying, “Where is our new 
queen? Let her come forth, so that we may 
greet her!” But no queen came, for Fiorina 
was still shut up in her cell. The noise and the 
rioting grew worse and worse, until the wicked 
queen and her daughter began to fear for their 
lives, and fled secretly to the fairy Zelia. 

Then the people burst into the palace, and 
sought everywhere for the princess. Up and 
down the stairs they ran, until at last they found 


220 


her in her wretched prison, and they took her out 
and crowned her at once. She was now a very 
great lady, indeed, and had the best of every- 
thing, yet she knew that happiness would never 
be hers until she had found her bluebird again. 

So, calling together six of the wisest men in 
her court, she left the care of the kingdom in 
their hands, and set off to search through the 
wide world for her beloved prince. Dressed like 
a poor peasant girl, she traveled up and down, 
asking every one, “ Have you seen a bluebird 
flying this way?” But they all answered, “No.” 

One day, she was sitting by a brook, dipping 
her weary feet into its cool water, when a 
woman, bent like a hoop with age, came and 
stood by her side. 

“Pretty maiden,” she said, “pray what are 
you doing here, all alone?” 

“Good mother,” replied Fiorina, “I am 
searching through the world for a bluebird ; but 
I am beginning to give up hope of ever finding 
him, for I have met no one who has seen him.” 

“Perhaps I can help you,” said the old 
woman ; and as she spoke she cast aside her 


221 





long cloak, and turned into a young and beau- 
tiful fairy. 

“I know all your story, lovely Fiorina,” she 
went on, “so I have taken pity on you, and 
shall do all I can to bring you happiness. You 
must know that I am a sister of the fairy Zelia, 
but I am much more powerful than she is, and 
I shall help you against her.” 

“Kind and beautiful fairy,” replied the young 
queen, “I can never thank you enough for the 
joy your words bring to me. Tell me first of 
all, I pray you, where my bluebird is; for as 
you are a fairy, you of course know everything.” 

“ I can easily tell you that,” said the fairy. 
“The prince you seek is no longer a bird, for he 
rules once again in his own country. My sister 
Zelia has given him leave to return to his real 
shape for six months.” 

“Oh, cruel prince!” cried Fiorina. “Why 
did he not seek me out and marry me, as he 
promised?” 

“You little know how much he wished to do 
so,” replied the fairy; “but Zelia would not 
permit it. He was given his human form again, 
223 


only if he would agree to let Troutina live in his 
palace, and try to like her and to marry her.” 

“Alas! Alas!” cried the poor queen. “Per- 
haps, even, by this time, he has made up his 
mind to make her his wife. Then I should die 
of grief.” 

“You need have no fear of that,” said the 
fairy; “he cannot so much as bear the sight of 
her. Do not worry, dear Fiorina; for I have 
given my promise to help you, and happiness 
shall yet be yours. Take these five eggs, and 
whenever you are in trouble, break one of them, 
and see what happens.” 

So saying, the' fairy vanished, leaving Fiorina 
staring at the eggs in her hand. 

Fiorina was greatly comforted by what the 
fairy had told her, and she now stepped out 
bravely toward the country of Prince Charming. 
After she had walked for a week without stop- 
ping, she came to a steep mountain of glass, 
which lay right in her path. 

“ I am sure I shall never be able to climb this 
mountain,” she said, almost crying. “What am 
I to do?” 


224 


Then she suddenly thought of her eggs, so 
she took one out and cracked it. Inside she 
found six golden needles, which she fixed upon 
her hands and feet, and then found that she 
could cross the mountain with ease. 

When she reached the top of the mountain, 
she saw a great lake spread out before her. So 
she broke her second egg, and out came a shin- 
ing chariot of rose-colored glass, drawn by two 
swans. Fiorina mounted the chariot, and was 
swiftly borne over the lake to the dry land 
which lay beyond. 

“Now, my sweet swans,” said she, “will you 
take me to the palace of Prince Charming?” 

The swans at once set off with her, and flew 
day and night until they reached the gates of the 
palace. There the girl dismissed them, after 
thanking them in the prettiest manner for all 
that they had done. 

She went into the palace, and told the servants 
that she had brought some very rare and curious 
things with her, which she wished to sell. So 
they took her to Troutina, who did not know 
her in her peasant’s clothes. 

225 


“Well, girl,” said the ugly princess, roughly, 
“what brings you here?” 

Fiorina replied, “I have come from a distant 
land to sell you rare and beautiful things”; and, 
taking her third egg, she cracked it. Out came 
a lovely little coach made from a single dia- 
mond; the horses were no bigger than small 
mice, and the coachman looked like a tiny doll. 

“Oh, how lovely!” cried Troutina. 

The horses pranced along the top of a table, 
and the coachman cracked his tiny whip. 

“What do you want for these?” she asked. 

“I will not sell them for money,” replied 
Fiorina, “but I will give them to you, if you will 
allow rne to sleep, for one night, on the mat out- 
side Prince Charming’s door.” 

“Very well,” said Troutina, laughing till she 
showed all her large teeth; “your bargains are 
cheap enough.” 

Now the prince always drank a glass of hot 
milk before going to bed, and into this Troutina 
put some powder to make him sleep soundly. 
So that, although Fiorina sobbed and wept all 
night outside his door, he did not hear her. 

226 


On the next day, she made up her mind to 
pass another night in the same place. So she 
cracked her fourth egg, and there she found a 
mirror which made even the ugliest face seem 
very beautiful. Troutina was pleased with this. 
But again the prince slept soundly the whole 
night. 

On the third day, Fiorina broke the last egg, 
out of which came a purse which never emptied, 
no matter how much money was taken from it. 
Greedy Troutina was delighted with this, and 
bought it at the same price as before. 

Now on this night, the prince forgot to drink 
his milk before going to bed, and as he lay 
awake he heard Fiorina crying, “Oh, my false 
lover ! What have I done that you should forget 
me and marry another?” 

He knew the voice at once, and, rushing to 
the door, found there his beloved princess, her 
eyes swollen with tears. He fell on his knees 
before her, and they embraced tenderly and wept 
together for joy. 

At this moment, the fairy who had given the 
eggs to Fiorina appeared before them, and said, 
227 


“ My power is greater than that of my sister 
Zelia, so you shall be married without delay.” 

Just then Troutina came running up, her face 
quite twisted with rage; but before she could 
say a word, the fairy changed her into a trout, 
and flung her out of the window into a stream 
which flowed below. 

Prince Charming and Fiorina had now over- 
come all their troubles, and their joy was greater 
than I can tell you. They were married the 
very next day, with the greatest splendor; and, 
having joined their countries together, they ruled 
over them very happily for the rest of their days. 



228 



THE BLUEBIRD. 


I know the song that the bluebird is singing 
Out in the apple-tree where he is swinging. 
Brave little fellow ! The skies may be dreary. 
Nothing cares he while his heart is so cheery. 
Hark! How the music leaps out from his throat! 
Hark! Was there ever so merry a note? 

Listen awhile, and you ’ll hear what he ’s saying 
Up in the apple-tree swinging and swaying: 

“ Dear little blossoms down under the snow, 
You must be weary of winter, I know. 

Hark while I sing you a message of cheer: 
Summer is coming, and springtime is here. 
Little white snowdrop, I pray you arise! 
Bright yellow crocus, come open your eyes! 
Sweet little violets hid from the cold, 

Put on your mantles of purple and gold ! 
Daffodils! Daffodils! Say, do you hear? 
Summer is coming and springtime is here.” 


229 


THE THROSTLE. 


“ Summer is coming , summer is coming! 

I know it , / know it , / it. 

Light again , /^^/' again , ///£ again , again!' 

Yes, my wild little poet. 

Sing the new year in under the blue. 

Last year you sang it as gladly. 

“New, new, new, new /” Is it then so new 
That you should carol so madly? 

“ Love. again, song again, nest again, young 
again!' 

Never a prophet so crazy! 

And hardly a daisy as yet, little friend— 

See, there is hardly a daisy. 

“Here again, here, here, here, happy year!" 

O warble unchidden, unbidden ! 

Summer is coming, is coming, my dear, 

And all the winters are hidden. 


230 



SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN 
DWARFS. 


Once upon a time, in the middle of winter, 
when the snowflakes were falling like feathers, a 
queen sat sewing at a window framed in black 
ebony. As she sewed she pricked her finger, 
and three drops of blood fell on the snow out- 
side. Because the red showed out so well 
against the white, she thought to herself, “ Oh ! 

231 


What would n’t I give to have a child as white 
as snow, as red as blood, and as black as 
ebony ! ” 

Her .wish was granted, for not long after was 
born to her a little daughter with a skin as white 
as snow, lips and cheeks as red as blood, and 
hair as black as ebony. She was called Snow 
White. 

Not long after her birth the queen died, and 
within a year the king married again. His new 
wife was a beautiful but wicked woman, and so 
proud that she could n’t bear any rival to her 
beauty. An old witch, who was a friend of hers, 
had given her a magic mirror; and when she 
used to stand before it and ask, 

“Mirror, mirror, in my hand, 

Who ’s the fairest in the land?” 

it always replied, 

“You are most fair, my Lady Queen; 

None fairer in the land, I ween.” 

Then the queen was happy, for she knew the 
mirror always spoke the truth. 

232 


233 





But Princess Snow White was growing pret- 
tier and prettier every year, and one day the 
prince of a neighboring kingdom was so struck 
by her loveliness that he asked for her hand in 
marriage. The queen put off giving him any 
answer for a year and a day ; and when he was 
gone, she asked the mirror the usual question. 
This time it replied, 

“My Lady Queen, you are fair, ’t is true; 

But Snow White is more fair than you.” 

Then the queen flew into the most violent 
passion, and, calling her chief huntsman, she said, 
“Take the princess out into the wood and kill 
her, and bring me her heart, that I may be cer- 
tain that she is dead.” 

The huntsman led Snow White out into the 
wood, but she was so sweet and beautiful that 
he let her wander forth into the forest instead of 
killing her. He killed a wild pig instead, and 
brought its heart to the queen as a proof that 
Snow White was really dead. 

When Snow White found herself alone in the 
wood, she was greatly frightened, and began to 
234 


run, and kept on running until she came to a 
little house. Through the window she saw there 
was no one at home, but she was so tired that 
she stepped inside to rest. Everything in the 
house was very small. A little table was set 
for supper with seven little plates, and against 
the wall were seven little beds. Snow White 
was so hungry and thirsty that she ate a bit of 
bread and a little porridge from each plate, and 
drank a drop of water from each cup. Then 
she lay down on one of the beds and fell fast 
asleep. 

Soon the masters of the house returned. 
They were seven dwarfs who dug deep in the 
heart of the mountain for gold and jewels. They 
soon noticed that some one had been in the 
room. 

“Who ’s been eating my bread?” said one of 
the dwarfs. “Who ’s been tasting my por- 
ridge?” said another. “Who’s been drinking 
from my cup?” said a third. 

Then the first saw a hollow in his bed 
where Snow White had tried it, and he cried 
out, “Who ’s been lying on my bed?” 

235 


Then all the dwarfs examined their beds, and 
the seventh started back in amazement, for there 
he beheld Snow White, fast asleep. 

The dwarfs had never seen a little girl before, 
and they were so enchanted by Snow White’s 
beauty that they gathered round with their 
lamps to admire her. The light woke Snow 
White. She was very much frightened at first, 
but the seven strange little dwarfs were so 
friendly that at last she told them how she came 
to be wandering so far in the forest, and how 
her stepmother had wished to put her to death. 

When the dwarfs had heard her story, they 
asked, “Will you stay and keep house for us — 
cook, make the beds, sweep the house, sew and 
knit? If you will do this, we shall be glad to 
have you live with us, and you shall want for 
nothing.” So Snow White took up her abode 
with them. 

Every morning the dwarfs burrowed into the 
mountain to seek for gold and jewels, and every 
evening, when they returned home, Snow White 
had their supper ready. They grew very fond 
of her, and she of them. But before they went 
236 


away in the morning, they always warned her, 
saying, “Beware of the wicked queen! If she 
finds out that you are alive, she may attempt to 
harm you.” 

The queen, because she thought she had seen 
Snow White’s heart, believed that she was once 
more the most beautiful woman in the world ; 
but one day, when she asked her magic mirror 
the usual question, it answered, 

“ My Lady Queen, you are fair, ’t is true; 

But Snow White is fairer far than you. 

Snow White, who dwells with the seven little 
men, 

Is as fair as you, as fair again.” 

When the queen heard these words, she was 
struck dumb with horror, and ran quickly to the 
witch and asked her how she might destroy 
Snow White. The witch, by magic, transformed 
the queen into an old peddler woman and gave 
her a poisoned comb. In this disguise the queen 
journeyed to the house of the seven dwarfs. 
There she called out, “Fine wares to sell! Fine 
wares to sell ! ” 


237 


Snow White saw that the old woman was 
tired, and asked her into the house; but she 
would buy nothing, for she had no money. 

Then the old woman said, “Because you were 
kind and let me come into the house, I will give 
you this fine comb. Let me put it in your hair.” 
Hardly had the comb touched her hair than the 
poison worked, and Snow White fell down un- 
conscious. 

“Now, my fine lady, you ’re really done for 
this time,” said the wicked woman, and she ran 
back to the witch. 

Fortunately, the seven dwarfs soon returned 
home, and when they saw their dear Snow 
White lying on the floor, still and motionless, 
they suspected the wicked queen. So they 
searched till they found the poisonous comb, 
and the moment they pulled it out of her hair, 
Snow White came to herself and told them what 
had happened. When they had heard it, they 
said, “The old peddler woman was none other 
than the queen in disguise. In future let no one 
into the house, if we are not at home.” 

As soon as the wicked queen got to the old 
238 


witch’s cavern, she consulted her magic mirror, 
but the mirror answered as before, 

“My Lady Queen, you are fair, ’t is true; 

But Snow White is fairer far than you. 

Snow White, who dwells with the seven little 
men, 

Is as fair as you, as fair again.” 

When she heard this, the queen became as 
pale as death, because she saw that Snow White 
must be alive again. “ This time,” she said to 
the witch, “you must give me something that 
will make an end of her, once and for all.” 

The witch gave her a poisoned apple, so 
beautiful that every one who saw it longed to 
eat it. Then the witch changed the queen into 
an old pieman. This time, when she knocked 
at the dwarfs’ door, Snow White answered 
through the window, and said, “ I may not let 
any one in, no matter who. I have promised 
the dwarfs.” 

“Are you afraid of being poisoned?” asked 
the old pieman. “ I merely stopped to give you 
an apple I plucked in the wood. See, I will 
239 



240 








cut it in half and eat the white side, and you can 
eat the red. 

Now the apple was so cunningly made that 
only the red cheek was poisonous. Snow White, 
seeing the pieman eating, took the poisoned half. 
But hardly had the first bite passed her lips 
when she fell down dead. 

“This time the dwarfs won’t be able to bring 
you back to life!” cried the queen. When she 
got home she asked her mirror, and it replied, 

“You are the fairest, Lady Queen; 

None fairer in the land, I ween.” 

So her jealous heart was at rest — at least as 
much at rest as so bad a heart ever can be. 

When the dwarfs came home, they found 
Snow White lifeless on the ground. They un- 
laced her bodice, combed her hair, and bathed 
her face with wine, but all in vain. Their little 
princess was dead. For three whole days they 
wept for her. She looked so lovely, as if she 
were only fast asleep, that they could not bear 
to hide her away in the black ground. So they 
made a coffin of crystal and laid her in it, and 
241 


wrote on the lid, in gold letters, that she was 
a princess. They set the coffin in a dell in the 
forest and kept watch over it all the time. 

One day it happened that, while the dwarfs 
kept guard over the coffin, deep in the dell, the 
queen’s huntsman, who had dug his way out of 
the tower in which he had been imprisoned, 
came searching through the forest for Snow 
White. When the dwarfs learned that he was 
the huntsman who had let Snow White escape 
instead of killing her, they let him look upon her 
in the crystal coffin. They saw that he, too, 
loved their little princess; and they asked him 
what to do, for they were sure that it was the 
wicked queen who had caused Snow White’s 
death. 

The huntsman led them back to the palace, 
bearing the crystal coffin on their shoulders. 
The prince had returned that day to claim Snow 
White as his bride, as the queen had promised. 
The queen told him that Snow White was dead; 
that she had died while away at school. 

Just at that moment, the huntsman and the 
seven dwarfs came marching into the palace, 
242 


bearing Snow White in the crystal coffin. The 
wicked queen was terrified, for she knew that 
her hour had come. Quickly grasping the magic 
mirror, she asked, 

“ Mirror, mirror, in my hand, 

Who ’s the fairest in the land?” 

The mirror replied, 

“You who hold me in your hand, 

You were fairest in the land; 

But to-day, I tell you true, 

Snow White is more fair than you.” 

In her rage and despair, the queen broke the 
magic mirror and rushed at the seven dwarfs to 
keep them from bringing the crystal coffin into 
the throne room. The dwarfs, in the suddenness 
of the attack, let the coffin fall. The crystal 
was broken, and Snow White’s body lay on the 
floor. 

When the dwarfs gathered around her to pro- 
tect her from the queen, Snow White sat up 
with the piece of poisoned apple in her hand ; it 
had been jarred from her throat by the fall. At 
243 


first Snow White was terrified when she recog- 
nized the palace; but when the prince claimed 
her for his bride, and said he would protect 
her, all fear left her. 

The queen became ugly, for she had broken the 
magic mirror, and she asked that they let her go 
far away, where no one would see her. The 
huntsman wanted to lock her up in the gray 
tower, as she had done to him. The seven 
dwarfs wanted to make a pair of red-hot slippers 
for her to dance in at Snow White’s wedding. But 
Snow White had pity on her, because she had 
become so ugly, and she persuaded her friends 
to let the queen go unharmed. 

Snow White was crowned queen, and the 
whole court rejoiced, for they loved her. The 
seven dwarfs went to their cottage, deep in the 
forest, to bring back their gold and diamonds as 
a wedding present for Snow White. When 
they returned, she kept them with her always as 
her bodyguard, and the huntsman was their 
captain. So Snow White and the prince lived 
happily forever after. 


244 


CLEVER CHANG. 


A little Chinese boy, named Chang, lived with 
his father and mother in a large city. His 
father kept a shop, and sold all kinds of pretty 
things, such as silk fans, paper lanterns, and 
gold lace. 

Every day Chang went to a queer little school. 
He was very good at his lessons, and his teacher 
often praised him. Like most Chinese children 
at that time, he was taught to write poetry, and 
his verses were always the best in his class. 

When Chang grew up, he left school, and 
went to work in his father’s shop. But he did 
not like selling things. He felt that he wanted 
to see something of the world. So he asked his 
father if he might set off to seek his fortune. 

At first his father refused, but when he found 
that the boy’s heart was set upon going, he let 
him go. 

After tramping for many days, Chang found 
himself in a large city near the sea. There he 
saw ships sailing to all parts, and he thought, 
“How fine it would be to sail in one of these 
245 



246 








ships ! I should visit all kinds of strange lands, 
and come back with sacks full of gold.” 

So he went on board one of the ships and 
offered himself as a sailor. The vessel put out 
to sea, and Chang began to feel very sick. But 
he soon got over this, and quickly grew to like 
his work. 

The ship sailed on for many days, quite out 
of sight of land. At last they came near to a 
large island, and Chang could see upon it the 
roofs and towers of a fine city. Then a great 
storm arose, and the waves beat against the 
sides of the ship until a plank gave way. 

The water rushed in, and the vessel quickly 
sank. All the crew were drowned except Chang. 
He clung to a broken piece of the mast, and 
was washed up safe and sound upon the shore. 

Chang slept all night upon the shore, and he 
was awakened in the morning by the sound of 
voices. Looking round him, he saw a party of 
horsemen, all dressed in splendid uniforms. 

At the head of the troop was a young man 
whose dress blazed with jewels, and whose horse 
was the finest Chang had ever seen. 

247 


“Good morning!” he said to Chang. “I can 
see that you are a stranger. Pray tell me from 
what country you have come.” 

“I have come from China,” replied the boy; 
and he told the young man all that had hap- 
pened to him. 

“Do you really come from China?” said the 
prince. “We have heard a great deal of that 
country, but we have never seen any one who 
came from there. Come along with me. My 
father will be pleased to see you.” 

Chang was set upon a beautiful horse, and 
the whole party then rode down to the seashore. 

248 


The horses plunged into the waves, and Chang 
was just beginning to think that they would all be 
drowned, when the sea opened out before them, 
and formed a high wall of water on each side. 

The troop rode along the broad path which 
opened before them, until at last they reached a 
large plain covered with all kinds of strange 
flowers. 

In the midst of this plain stood a palace. The 
walls were made of pink coral, and the roof was 
made of fishes’ scales. In the front, a great 
flight of golden steps led up to a door of mother- 
of-pearl. Around the palace was a large garden, 
in which fountains were playing merrily, and the 
prettiest brooks and waterfalls were flowing here 
and there. 

“You must know,” said the prince, “that I 
am the son of the King of the Sea. This is his 
palace. He will be glad to see any one from 
China.” 

So saying, he led the way up the golden steps 
into a vast hall of polished glass, out of which 
opened a number of other chambers, all shining 
with thousands of lights. In this hall there was 
249 


a splendid throne, and on it sat a very fine- 
looking old man — the King of the Sea. 

Chang had never seen a real king before, so 
he felt rather nervous, and did not quite know 
what he ought to do. Still, he made his very 
best bow, and then went down on his knees 
before the throne. The old king spoke to him 
in a kind tone, and asked him who he was. 

When the prince had told him Chang’s story, 
the king said, “ I am, indeed, pleased that you have 
come to see me, for I have heard how clever 
the Chinese are. People have told me that they 
write the best poetry in the world. I wonder if 
you will write a poem for me all about this palace.” 

“I will, indeed,” replied Chang. He sat down 
at once at a table, and wrote a hundred verses. 
They were quite the best he had ever written, 
and he felt very proud when he laid them at the 
feet of the king. 

When the king had read them, he was pleased. 

“ If you will stay with me,” he said to Chang, 
“you shall be my chief poet. I will give you a 
fine house near the palace, and you shall have 
horses to ride, and servants to wait upon you.” 
250 


Chang was only too pleased to consent. He 
received all that the king had promised, and 
became a very great man, indeed. When he 
went out, he rode upon a splendid horse, and 
twenty horsemen always went with him. Ten 
rode in front of him, carrying swords, while ten 
rode behind him, blowing trumpets. 

For many years Chang lived in the Kingdom 
of the Sea. Every year the old king grew more 
fond of him, until at last he gave him, as wife, 
his only daughter, a lady as lovely as any fairy. 

In time, they had two pretty little children, 
and the king gave them a larger house than 
before, with great rooms in it, stocked with 
every toy you can imagine. Around the house 
there were fine gardens, where the little ones 
might romp and play to their hearts’ content. 

Yet, as the years passed by, Chang began to 
have a great desire to see his old home once 
more. It seemed such a long time since he had 
set off to seek his fortune, and he thought of the 
pleasure it would give his father and mother to 
see him again. 

So one day he went to his princess and said, 

251 


“ I have now been away from my country for 
many years, and I feel that I should like to go 
back again to see my father and mother. Let 
us take our children with us, and make the 
journey to China together.” 

‘‘No; that I may not do,” replied his wife. 
“ I should quickly die if I left the Kingdom of 
the Sea. You must go alone, though I shall be 
very, very sad as long as you are away from 
me. You may stay away for one year, and then 
you must hasten back, or my heart will be 
broken.” 

Chang kissed his wife, and promised that 
nothing in the world would keep him from com- 
ing back. Then the princess ran off and took 
from an old chest a small round mirror, which 
she gave to her husband. 

“Take this with you,” said she. “It is a 
magic mirror. Whenever you look into it, you 
will see my face.” 

She next filled a bag of jewels, and gave it to 
Chang, saying, “Take care of this bag, for I 
wish you to give it to your father and mother as 
a present from me.” 


252 


Then she called for her chariot of mother-of- 
pearl, which soon rolled up, drawn by eight 
snow-white sheep, each with a collar of dia- 
monds. 

After saying good-by to his children, Chang 
mounted into the chariot with the princess, and 
off he drove along the sea lane which led to the 
island on the edge of the kingdom. Then he 
bade his wife farewell and stepped ashore, while 
the walls of the sea closed in behind him. 

Chang set off at once for the town, near which 
he had been wrecked so many years before. 
Here he boarded a ship just about to sail for 
China, and, after a safe voyage, he at last reached 
his native land. 

He hastened to his old home, but his parents 
no longer lived there. He sought through the 
town, and at last found them in a wretched hut 
in the poorest part of the city. They wept with 
joy to see their dear son again, for they had 
long given him up as dead. 

When their loving greetings’ were at an end, 
Chang asked his parents how it was that they 
were now so poor. ' 


253 



254 












“Alas,” said his father, “it is a sad story! 
One day our shop caught fire and was burned 
to the ground; not a single thing was saved. 
Since then, we have lived, as best we could, on 
what our neighbors cared to give us, and often 
we have been without food for days.” 

When Chang heard this, he ran off and 
brought back a basket full of food, and the poor 
old people had the best meal they had ever 
eaten. Then he told them all that had hap- 
pened to him, and they sat up very late that 
night listening to his strange story. 

At last he showed them the bag of jewels 
which the princess had sent them as a present. 
They clapped their hands with joy, and praised 
the kindness of the princess in making them rich 
for the rest of their lives. 

Then Chang bought a fine house for his father 
and mother, and filled it with rich furniture. He 
also gave them a very large sum of money, for 
which he had sold six of the smallest jewels in 
the bag. 

He settled down with his parents in their new 
home, and lived very happily for many weeks. 
255 


But he never forgot his princess, and every day 
he looked at his magic mirror, and there he saw 
her face. She always seemed quite happy, and 
smiled sweetly at him. 

But as the months went by, her face grew 
sadder and sadder, and Chang began to feel that 
it was time for him to go back to her. So he 
sold the rest of the jewels which he had brought 
with him, and gave the money to his parents. 
Then he bade them farewell, and set *off once 
more for the coast. 

Here he hired a ship, and sailed away to find 
the island which led to the Kingdom of the Sea. 
But soon he found himself in great trouble, for 
he had quite forgotten where the island lay. 
Up and down he sailed for weeks and weeks, 
and though he landed on many islands, not one 
was the right one. 

He could not think what to do. His year of 
absence from his wife was nearly ended, and the 
face of the princess in the magic mirror grew 
very sad. She wept and wept, and the tears 
fell down her cheeks like so many pearls. 

At last, one sunny morning, he was standing 
256 


looking over the side of the ship, when he saw 
two beautiful children, swimming in the water in 
front of the vessel. What fun they were hav- 
ing! They splashed each other with the silver 
wave-tops, and flung here and there the rainbow 
bubbles of the salt sea foam. 

The moment Chang saw them, he knew they 
were his own children, and that they had been 
sent by the princess to lead him into the right 
way. 

“Come on board my ship, and let me clasp 
you in my arms! ” he cried. “I have a hundred 
questions to ask about your mother and your 
home. ,, 

“O father dear! We wish we could,” they 
replied; “but our mother told us that we were 
to be sure not to leave the water, or we should 
forget the way home. We shall swim as fast as 
we can in front of your ship, and you must 
follow swiftly behind.” 

“Spread all the sails,” cried Chang, joyfully, 
to his sailors. “ Make the ship skim over the 
sea as fast as a bird flies through the air.” 

The men rushed to do as he had told them, 

257 


and the ship was soon sailing so fast that the 
waves were hissing around the bows. 

It was not long before they reached the island 
for which they were seeking. Chang at once 
went on shore, where his children were already 
waiting for him, none the worse for their long 
swim. After he had greeted them tenderly, he 
paid his sailors and sent the ship back to China. 

When the vessel was quite out of sight, the 
waves rolled back, and the broad path opened 
which led to the Kingdom of the Sea. There 
Chang saw his princess sitting in her mother-of- 
pearl chariot, with its eight snow-white sheep, 
and behind her were a hundred horsemen in 
splendid uniforms. 

He ran at once to meet the princess, and she 
was so glad to see him after his long absence, 
that she wept and laughed in turns. 

They all mounted into the chariot — even the 
children — and were drawn rapidly along the sea 
lane to the king’s palace. 

There a splendid feast was prepared, and 
guests were gathered from all parts of the king- 
dom. The feasting and merrymaking lasted for 
258 


six weeks, but the guests said it seemed like six 
hours. 

The old king now made Chang a prince, and 
gave him a palace almost as grand as his own. 
Chang never wished to return to China, but lived 
happily ever after with his beautiful wife and 
pretty children at his home in the Kingdom 
of the Sea. 



259 



HORSES WITH WINGS. 

There once lived, in an old city of Greece, a 
king who had a very lovely daughter. She was 
so beautiful that all who saw her fell in love 
with her. This was a great worry to her father, 
for he had been told that he would die on the 
day of his daughter’s marriage. 

Many brave princes would have liked to win 
so fair a princess, but her father did everything 
he could to prevent it. He said that he would 
give her only to the man who could beat him in 
260 


a chariot race, and that every one who tried and 
failed should lose his life. 

Princes came riding from all parts of Greece, 
and there was not one of them who did not 
think that he was sure to win the princess. But 
the king had two wonderful horses, given him 
by the sun god. They were so swift that even 
the winds could not keep up with them, so that 
none of the princes ever had any chance of 
winning. 

The king gave each of them a good start, but 
long before they reached the end of the course, 
they heard, close behind, the thunder of his 
chariot wheels. One after another, the brave 
young men were killed by the king’s spear, 
hurled at them as his chariot passed theirs. 

Now, one fine day, there came to the court 
of the king a certain noble prince called Pelops, 
who had heard of the fame of the lovely 
princess. 

* No sooner had he seen her, than her beauty 
quite won his heart. So he went to her father, 
and asked if he might have her as his wife. 

“You are a very bold young man to ask such 
261 


a thing,” replied the king. “Do you not know 
that she is to be given only to him who can 
beat me in a chariot race?” 

“Yes,” replied Pelops, “I know all about 
that; and I know that every one who tries to 
do so, and does not succeed, is slain by your 
spear. Still, my love for the princess is so 
great, that I am ready to risk anything in order 
to win her.” 

“Then you may go and prepare yourself for 
death,” said the king; “for there are no horses 
in the world that can beat the pair which draw 
my chariot.” 

“I will do my best to win the race,” replied 
the young prince; “and if you beat me, then I 
no longer wish to live.” 

So he went off to find a team of horses swifter 
than that of the king. He saw many splendid 
steeds, but, try as he might, he never came 
across any that seemed likely to win the race. 

On the evening before the race was to take 
place, Pelops went down to the seashore, and 
prayed to the sea god to give him help. As he 
prayed, the waters became troubled; the waves 
262 



% 


263 






rose and broke upon the shore ; the sky became 
overcast, and lightning flashed through the black 
clouds. 

Then the sea god himself arose from the 
foaming waves, with the water dripping from 
his long beard. Pelops was so frightened at this 
sight, that he fell upon his face on the ground. 
But the sea god cried, “Do not be afraid, noble 
prince; I have taken pity on you and will help 
you. Arise, and see what I am about to send 
you.” 

So the prince rose to his feet, just in time to 
see the god sinking into the sea, which at once 
became as calm as a mill pond. 

Soon the waters parted again, and from them 
rose two milk-white horses drawing a chariot of 
ivory. The horses had great wings, and their 
shape was so perfect that the like of them had 
never been seen on earth before. 

Pelops gave thanks to the sea god for his 
wonderful present, and led off the beautiful 
horses to a secret place, so that no one should 
see them before the race. 

Next morning, every one in the kingdom who 
264 


could make the journey, came to see the great 
race. What a stir there was when Pelops came 
up in his ivory chariot, driving his beautiful 
winged horses! 

He was clad in a white dress with silver 
edging, and a belt of silver was round his waist. 
On his head was a bright silver helmet, with a 
long plume that floated behind him in the 
breeze. No one had ever seen so handsome a 
prince, and there were many who said it would 
be a shame if he were killed. 

As soon as the king saw the horses, he knew 
that they were magic steeds. But he feared 
nothing, for his own team was the gift of the 
sun god, and he did not think it was possible for 
it to be beaten. So he gave the signal for the 
race to begin, telling Pelops that he would give 
him as good a start as he had granted to others. 

Off went the prince like the wind. The feet of 
his horses did not even touch the ground, and 
the chariot flew along so quickly, that it was out 
of sight long before the king had made a start. 
But the horses of the sun god were even swifter 
than those of the sea god, and when Pelops had 
265 


almost reached the end of the race, he heard 
behind him the thunder of the kings chariot 
wheels. 

He thought that his end had come, and every 
moment expected to feel the king’s spear be- 
tween his shoulders. In his despair he prayed 
again to the sea god for help, and he did not 
pray in vain. The god caused one of the wheels 
of the royal chariot to fly off, so that the king 
was thrown out upon his head, and killed on the 
spot. 

At this very moment, Pelops reached the goal. 
He had won the race, and the beautiful princess 
was now to be his bride. His heart was filled 
with joy at this thought, and he turned his 
horses’ heads and drove back to the king’s city 
to claim his wife. 

In a very short time, his steeds carried him 
back to the city; but, just as he was about to 
enter the gates, he saw flames and smoke rising 
above the roofs. 

“Fire! Fire!” cried all the people. “The 
royal palace is on fire, and the princess will be 
burned to death.” 


266 


In a flash, Pelops took one of his winged 
horses from the chariot, and mounted upon its 
back. The beautiful creature rose in the air 
like a great bird, and soon the prince found him- 
self amid the smoke and sparks above the palace 
roof. 

There he saw the lovely princess standing 
upon the roof, wringing her hands in terror. 
“Save me! Save me!” she cried when she saw 
the noble youth upon his horse. Pelops flew to 
her rescue, and caught her up in his arms, just 
as the flames reached the spot where she was 
standing. 

The winged steed quickly bore them in safety 
to the ground, where all the people hailed Pelops 
as their king. Soon afterward he married the 
lovely princess, and together they reigned hap- 
pily in the land for many years. 


267 


A MIRACLE. 


When Bacchus was a boy, he journeyed 
through Hellas to go to Naxia. As the way 
was very long, he grew tired and sat down upon 
a stone to rest. 

While he sat there, with his eyes upon the 
ground, he saw a little plant spring up between 
his feet. He was so pleased with it, that he 
determined to take it with him and plant it in 
Naxia. 

He took the plant up and carried it away with 
him ; but as the sun was very hot, he feared it 
might wither before he reached Naxia. So he 
looked for something to carry it in. Soon he 
found a bird’s skeleton, into which he thrust the 
plant, and went on. But the plant sprouted so 
fast in the bird’s skeleton, that it started out of 
the bones above and below. 

Shortly after this he found a lion’s bone which 
was larger than the bird’s skeleton, and into this 
he thrust the skeleton, with the plant in it. Ere 
long, however, the plant grew out of the lion’s 
bone likewise. 


268 


Then he found a donkey’s skull, large enough 
to hold the bone of the lion. So he put the 
lion’s bone, containing the bird’s skeleton and 
the plant, into the skull of the donkey, and thus 
he made his way to Naxia. 

When Bacchus was about to set the plant in 
the ground so that it might grow freely, he 
found that the roots had entwined themselves 
around the bird’s skeleton and the lion’s bone 
and the donkey’s skull. As he could not take 
out the plant without damaging the roots, he 
planted it as it was. 

To the great joy of Bacchus, the plant came 
up speedily, and bore the most delicious grapes, 
from which he made the first wine and gave it to 
men to drink. 

But — behold a miracle! When men drank of 
it, they first sang like birds ; next, after drinking 
a little more, they became bold as lions; but 
when they drank more still, they began to behave 
like donkeys. 


269 


HOW ARIADNE HELPED THESEUS. 


i. 

Many years ago, Minos, the King of Crete, 
was in great distress because a terrible monster, 
called the Minotaur, was destroying his people. 
This fierce monster had the shape of a man, 
with a horned head like that of a wild bull. For 
a long time Minos had tried to kill him, but 
could not; nor could he build a cage strong 
enough to hold the monster securely. 

As soon as Daedalus, a famous Greek, learned 
of this great trouble, he went to the king and 
said, “ O King Minos ! I can help you ! ” 

“How so?” answered King Minos. “Who 
are you, and what can you do?” 

Daedalus replied boldly, “ I am Daedalus, the 
architect, from Athens. You surely have heard 
of me and what I can do.” 

“What!” cried the king. "Are you the fa- 
mous Athenian sculptor?” 

“ I am,” answered Daedalus, quietly. 

“Welcome! Welcome!” exclaimed King Mi- 
270 


nos. “Thrice welcome, Daedalus! You come 
in time of sore need. Tell me, can you build a 
cage to hold this wild Minotaur securely? Will 
you?” 

“I can and I will, O king!” said the sculptor. 

Thereupon this Athenian stonecutter began to 
show his wonderful skill in all kinds of handi- 
craft. All manner of tools were soon ready. 

“What are you about to do, O Daedalus?” 
asked King Minos, wonderingly. 

“You will see,” answered Daedalus. “I have 
planned to cut what I call a labyrinth out of the 
solid rock of the hill just before us.” 

“A labyrinth! What do you mean by a 
labyrinth?” asked the king. 

“You will see,” answered Daedalus. “I shall 
hew out of the rock a central chamber, with 
many winding passages leading to it. These 
passages will be so mixed up that only he who 
knows the secret can find his way into the cen- 
tral chamber and out again.” 

Then Daedalus showed his plan to the king, 
who puzzled a long time over the twists and 
turns. 


271 


“The windings are certainly very confusing,” 
said the king. “Even though I see them all at 
the same time, I can see no path clear. I am 
constantly blocked. What would happen if I 
were in the labyrinth itself?” 

When, at last, this wonderful labyrinth was 
completed, King Minos and all his people greatly 
rejoiced. Soon after this their joy was doubled 
at the news that the fearful Minotaur had nosed 
his way into the entrance and had not come out. 

“You may safely rejoice,” cried Daedalus. 
“Your Minotaur can never find his way out.” 


ii. 

Now Androgeus, the son of King Minos, was 
fond of travel. He visited many strange places. 
While he was in Greece, in the capital city of 
Athens, he became mixed up in a street brawl 
and lost his life. 

When the news reached Crete, King Minos at 
once went to war against the Athenians. After 
a furious battle, Athens was taken. The Athe- 
nians, to save themselves, agreed to do what- 
ever King Minos wanted. 

272 


The King of Crete demanded that every ninth 
year seven young men and seven young maidens 
should be sent to Crete from Athens. These 
the fierce king, in bitter revenge for the loss of 
his son, cast into the labyrinth, where they were 
destroyed by the raging Minotaur. 

The Athenians lamented sorely over this, but 
they could not help themselves. However, The- 
seus, son of the King of Athens, determined that 
he would slay the dreadful Minotaur, or die in 
the attempt. King Minos had promised to grant 
them freedom if any Athenian killed the monster. 
Therefore, when King Minos came to Athens to 
make the third choice of young men and young 
maidens, Theseus offered to be one of them, and 
was accepted. His father, the King of Athens, 
was in great sorrow. Theseus tried to comfort 
him. “Dear father, do not despair,” he said. 
“ I shall surely kill this monstrous beast and 
free our beloved people from the fierce wrath of 
Minos.” 

So the ship, with its sails full spread, set out 
for Crete. 

According to the strange belief of these people, 
273 


King Minos was a son of Zeus, the great god 
of the heavens; and Theseus was the son of 
Poseidon, the god of the sea. 

During the voyage, Minos offended one of the 
maidens. Theseus protected her and rebuked 
the king. Minos grew very angry at the bold 
youth, and determined to humble him. He 
walked to the high stern of the ship, and, lifting 
up his arms toward the heavens, called out in a 
loud voice, “O Zeus, mighty father ! Hear me! 
If thou art indeed my father, send forth from the 
heavens a swift flash of fire as a sign.” 

The legend says that mighty Zeus heard the 
prayer of Minos, and that a stream of fire flashed 
across the sky. 

Then turning toward Theseus, Minos said, 
“ If thou, Theseus, art indeed the son of the sea 
god, Poseidon, cast thyself boldly into the sea 
and bring back this ring.” At this Minos took 
a shining ring from his finger and threw it away 
from him into the water. 

Immediately Theseus sprang over the side of 
the ship, and plunged head first under the rolling 
waves. Every one thought the bold youth 
274 


would drown, and cried aloud to the pilot to 
bring the ship about in order to pick him up. 
But Minos commanded that the vessel should 
be kept before the wind. So the ship went 
swiftly on, and the young men and maidens shed 
bitter tears of grief. 

But the sea god, Poseidon, took good care of 
his son Theseus. He sent a beautiful, bright- 
colored dolphin to carry the youth on his back 
to the great sea god’s palace under the sea. 
There Theseus was gladly welcomed. A robe 
of gleaming purple was thrown around his 
shoulders, and on his head was placed a wreath 
of roses. Then the sportive Nereids brought 
him the ring which Minos had cast into the sea, 
and carried him swiftly back to the onward 
speeding ship. 

When Theseus once more stood upon the 
deck, all saw that his purple robe was not wet, 
and that the wreath of roses on his dark hair 
gleamed red as blood. They also saw that the 
ring was on his hand. 

Then the youths and maidens sang with joy, 
and the ship sailed on to the island of Crete. 

275 


III. 


Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos, ran to 
meet her father when he landed from the ship. 

She was tender of heart, and hated cruelty. 
She pitied the Athenians, and spoke kindly to 
them. When one of the maidens told her what 
Theseus intended to do, Ariadne warned him of 
the danger. The Minotaur, she said, could not 
easily be overcome. Then, too, Theseus might 
lose his way in the labyrinth, and so perish. 

Theseus could not be moved from his pur- 
pose. Finally Ariadne promised to help him. 
When he was ready, she took a large ball of 
thread and went with him to the entrance of the 
labyrinth. There she fastened securely the end 
of the thread. Then she gave him the ball, and 
told him to unwind it as he moved forward. By 
this means, she said, he would always be able to 
find his way . back again. 

After long and weary searching, Theseus 
found the central chamber. At sight of him, 
the Minotaur gave a loud bellow and made a 
furious rush at him. The young man nimbly 
276 


leaped to one side. As the monster passed by, 
Theseus made a quick thrust with his dagger, 
and drove it up to the hilt right into the heart of 
the beast. That was the end of the Minotaur. 

Trembling with joy, the brave young man 
quickly retraced his steps, and by the aid of 
Ariadne’s thread soon found his way safely out 
of the labyrinth. There he told his story, and 
demanded the release which Minos had promised. 

With his companions whom he had delivered, 
Theseus set sail for home, where there was great 
joy over his victory. 







































































































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